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Speaker 1: Pressing the newsmakers to get the real story. It's heather

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Speaker 1: dupericl and drive with one New Zealand to coverage like

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Speaker 1: no one else new sorg Zivy.

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Speaker 2: Afternoon. If you were under the impression that the Arduna

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Speaker 2: response to COVID was completely based on health advice and

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Speaker 2: simply following the science, then the Royal Commission of Inquiry

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Speaker 2: report out today made dissuade you of that notion. Turns

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Speaker 2: out that Cabinet chose to keep Auckland Is in lockdown

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Speaker 2: level four in September twenty twenty one, nearly a week

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Speaker 2: longer than Ashley Bloomfield advised, and that the Auckland boundary

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Speaker 2: was up for two to thirty two days longer than required.

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Speaker 2: We're going to have then COVID Minister Chris Hipkins, who

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Speaker 2: made these decisions in about half an hour. But first

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Speaker 2: the Health Minister, Simeon BrownHouse, heisamn.

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Speaker 3: Good afternoon.

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Speaker 2: When you read this report for the first time, what

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Speaker 2: caught your rye?

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Speaker 3: Well, I think a number of things. Firstly, I think

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Speaker 3: it showed that the previous government did lock us down

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Speaker 3: for longer than was necessary. It also highlighted that they

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Speaker 3: spent too much and they continued spending on many things

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Speaker 3: which went related to the pandemic and that we're still

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Speaker 3: facing those consequences today.

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Speaker 2: Hipkins says, read the keeping us on lockdown level four

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Speaker 2: for longer. Hipkins says that the advice that Ashley Bloomfield

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Speaker 2: gave the day before cabinet he changed overnight and orally

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Speaker 2: said the opposite. Do you buy that?

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Speaker 3: Look? Ultimately the paper that cabinet paper that went up

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Speaker 3: and what the Royal Commission found was that the option

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Speaker 3: put to Cabinet was to lock down Auckland for one

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Speaker 3: week less than what was decided, and what happened was

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Speaker 3: a different decision came out of that. The reality is

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Speaker 3: cross Hapkin said during the time that he was making

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Speaker 3: these decisions based on health advice and he should have

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Speaker 3: been transparent where he was not. And that's I think

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Speaker 3: an issue which this Royal Commission has now shone a

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Speaker 3: lot on a light on.

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Speaker 2: Is it possible though, that Ashley Bloomfield does have asleep

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Speaker 2: on it and change his mind overnight.

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Speaker 3: I mean, look anything, I mean it's possible. But the

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Speaker 3: reality here is the Royal commit has found that the

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Speaker 3: Ministry of Health, Ashley Bloomfield Ministry of Health provided advice

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Speaker 3: that it could have been lifted earlier, and ultimately Cabinet

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Speaker 3: decided not to. And those those are questions that should

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Speaker 3: be put to cross Ipkins as to why they made

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Speaker 3: those decisions, and you'll obviously have them on the program later.

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Speaker 3: And the second key, key one was the restriction around Auckland,

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Speaker 3: the border restriction around Auckland for thirty two days over

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Speaker 3: the summer of twenty one twenty two. Ultimately that was

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Speaker 3: not needed. The officials made it very clear vaccination rates

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Speaker 3: were high across the country. There was no need to

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Speaker 3: put checks in place around the Auckland area for people

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Speaker 3: leaving or coming in. And ultimately if they and the

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Speaker 3: advice was clear from the Ministry, if that was in place,

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Speaker 3: they would put a huge burden on the testing regime.

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Speaker 3: We've got to remember that was before the government let

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Speaker 3: us actually use those rat tests which we will now use.

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Speaker 3: That was putting significant burden on the testing system. So

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Speaker 3: many decisions were made. They stood up every day on

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Speaker 3: the Party the Truth told us that they were following

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Speaker 3: health advice. Well, the Royal Commission said actually in number

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Speaker 3: of instances they weren't.

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Speaker 2: What happened to the Health advice not to double jab

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Speaker 2: the kids.

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Speaker 3: So this issue is I think quite a serious issue

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Speaker 3: and it shows a significant failure on behalf of the

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Speaker 3: Ministry of Health where the Technical Advisory Group provided advice

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Speaker 3: to the Ministry saying actually children didn't need two jabs

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Speaker 3: for twelve to seventeen year olds, one was actually enough

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Speaker 3: and if they had a second one started increasing the

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Speaker 3: risk of around my car dietist. So quite a serious issue.

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Speaker 3: The Royal Commission found that that advice was not made

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Speaker 3: sufficiently clear to ministers. However, there was a piece of

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Speaker 3: advice provided two Criss Hipkins on the twenty second of

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Speaker 3: December twenty twenty one which did raise those concerns about

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Speaker 3: the vaccination mandate and the number of doses that were required,

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Speaker 3: and ultimately those mandates stayed in place, and Chris Hipkins

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Speaker 3: and doctor Verel who ended up signing that paper will

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Speaker 3: need to explain why they didn't ask further questions why

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Speaker 3: those mandates stayed in place even though those concerns were

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Speaker 3: raised to them at that time.

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Speaker 2: They say that the paper that explicitly advises them not

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Speaker 2: to force the kids to have a double jab never

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Speaker 2: reached them. Can we explain that.

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Speaker 3: Well. The report goes into quite some detail on this

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Speaker 3: point and it says if you read paragraph four hundred

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Speaker 3: and thirteen and four hundred and fourteen of the report,

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Speaker 3: it highlights very clearly that the report that they did

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Speaker 3: receive on the twenty second of November says that the

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Speaker 3: Technical Advisory Group has raised concerns about vaccine mandates requiring

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Speaker 3: younger age groups, eg. Those under eighteen years to be

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Speaker 3: fully vaccinated. Considerations should be given to permitting younger people

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Speaker 3: who have had one dose to be permitted to work

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Speaker 3: or undertake other activities covered by the mandate. So they

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Speaker 3: were provided. That was what they were told by the

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Speaker 3: Ministry of Health on the twenty six of December, and

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Speaker 3: those mandates were still in place and kept in place.

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Speaker 3: If the Minister of the Minister of COVID nineteen, Chris Hopkins,

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Speaker 3: when he saw that should have started asking questions to

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Speaker 3: get further information. It's not good enough just to say

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Speaker 3: we didn't receive something. He was given something and his

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Speaker 3: job was then to ask questions and delve into something

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Speaker 3: which did raise quite a serious safety risk for those children.

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Speaker 2: So mean, thanks very much for your time. That Simon Brown,

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Speaker 2: the Health Minister.

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