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Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced a public inquiry into how the Government handled the Covid-19 pandemic, which is expected to offer lessons from the pandemic response.
Ardern said it was the highest form of public inquiry and the “right thing to do”.
“The Royal Commission has been asked to look at the overall response, including the economic response, identify what we can learn from it and how that can be applied to any future pandemic.”
You can watch the prime minister discuss the inquiry during the weekly post-Cabinet briefing, livestreamed at the top of this story from 4pm.
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The Royal Commission of Inquiry will be chaired by Australian-based epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely, alongside former Minister Hekia Parata and former Treasury Secretary John Whitehead. It will launch on February 1 and conclude mid-2024.
Senior ministers had agreed its scope would be the “lessons learned” from New Zealand’s response, so those could be applied to any future pandemic, Arder said.
The scope included the legislative, regulatory and operational settings behind the public health response, the supply of goods and services while people are isolating, and the immediate economic response to a future pandemic.
It will also look into the “communication with, engagement of, and enabling people and communities to mobilise and act in support of both personal and community public health outcomes over an extended period”. It would also consider the interests of Māori in the context of a pandemic, consistent with the Te Tiriti o Waitangi relationship.
The inquiry would also look at the impact on, and support for essential workers, and other populations and communities disproportionately impacted by pandemic.
“It had been over 100 years since we experienced a pandemic of this scale, so it’s critical we compile what worked and what we can learn from it should it ever happen again,” Ardern said.
“New Zealand experienced fewer cases, hospitalisations and deaths than nearly any other country in the first two years of the pandemic, but there has undoubtedly been a huge impact on New Zealanders both here and abroad.”
The Government has faced growing calls to hold an inquiry into how the country responded to the pandemic including from Helen Clark – who co-chaired a review of the World Health Organisation’s Covid-19 response – as well as Opposition parties and epidemiologists.
Former Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said in November it was the “right time to do something more formal”, rather than the regular reviews the Government undertookof its pandemic response.
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