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Speaker 1: The head of the COVID nineteen inquiry, says vaccine mandates

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Speaker 1: caused huge pain to a substantial minority during the pandemic

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Speaker 1: and the government should consider where the benefits outweigh the harms. Well,

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Speaker 1: I could have told you that for nothing. Today, Professor

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Speaker 1: Tony Blakeley hands over the first phase of the inquiry

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Speaker 1: to the Internal Affairs Minister Brook van Valden. He says

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Speaker 1: the damage to social cohesion needs to be considered before

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Speaker 1: planning for future outbreaks. Matthew Haig was a lawyer who

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Speaker 1: defended a New Zealand Defense Force personnel who didn't want

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Speaker 1: to get the COVID JAB when it was mandatory. He's

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Speaker 1: with us this morning, Matthew, Good morning the boding run.

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Speaker 1: I'll go through the exact comments in just a second,

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Speaker 1: but what's your your brief reaction to that.

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Speaker 2: My action is in some way it does state the obvious,

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Speaker 2: the soiluquill. Part of me wonders if the little adverse

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Speaker 2: comments that Blakeley and the commission does make is a

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Speaker 2: way to pre enter the second inquiry that's to be

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Speaker 2: headed by different commissioners.

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Speaker 1: What you think the second one might have gone harder

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Speaker 1: and they're preempting it.

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Speaker 2: I think so. Yes, There's been widespread criticism of Professor Blakeley,

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Speaker 2: who is an epidemiologist who gave direct advice to key

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Speaker 2: government decision makers throughout a pandemic, including doctor Bluefield. Isn't

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Speaker 2: seem to be impartial. And I wonder if the address comment,

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Speaker 2: which really they have no choice but to make, is

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Speaker 2: that way to premp the second quarry.

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Speaker 1: Is there anything legally that can be I mean, once

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Speaker 1: this report comes out, can it form the basis of

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Speaker 1: any kind of further legal challenges.

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Speaker 2: No, not directly, although I think whatever comment and evidence

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Speaker 2: they do present it might be helpful for even challenges

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Speaker 2: that are ongoing today. In twenty twenty four, we're still

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Speaker 2: waste on a Supreme Court decision, there's still cases before

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Speaker 2: the Employment Relations Authority, there are still mandates now in

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Speaker 2: New Zealand.

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Speaker 1: Yeah, and well that's true. How do you think the

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Speaker 1: people who you represented will feel reading what's out in

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Speaker 1: the Herald this morning?

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Speaker 2: Fatigued and I'm surprised.

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Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Great to have you

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Speaker 1: on the show. Matthew Matthew Hague, lawyer who defended a

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Speaker 1: client who didn't want the COVID JAB but was forced

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Speaker 1: to get it anyway twenty four minutes after that. Report,

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Speaker 1: by the way, is going to the government today and

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Speaker 1: we don't know when it will see the light of day.

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Speaker 1: I'll just read a couple of words from it here.

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Speaker 1: This is from Professor Blakely. He's the epidemiologist of the

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Speaker 1: first phase of the Royal Commission into COVID, and that

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Speaker 1: is an incredibly important lesson out of the pandemic. When

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Speaker 1: you're doing these types of mandatory things like mandatory vaccination,

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Speaker 1: they really need to be in a context where the

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Speaker 1: benefits far out weigh the harms. Mandates were justified for

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Speaker 1: frontline healthcare workers, border officials, and high risk places like prisons,

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Speaker 1: but he says, as far as it's reached beyond that,

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Speaker 1: I think we have all learned that has to be

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Speaker 1: done very cautiously, even if the majority of the population

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Speaker 1: are of the view that it should be happening.

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Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live

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