New Covid-19 Inquiry announced, NZ First’s Winston Peters invokes ‘agree to

NZ First has invoked the first use of the “agree to disagree” provisions in the coalition government, saying it disagrees with elements of the Government’s decisions on an expanded Covid-19 inquiry.

NZ First leader Winston Peters issued a press release setting out the party’s position after Brooke van Velden released the form the inquiry would take.

Peters said while NZ First agreed with the scope of a proposed “second phase” of the inquiry, it disagreed strongly with the decision to complete the current Royal Commission into Covid-19 inquiry first and to keep its chair Tony Blakely in place.

Van Velden said the Covid-19 inquiry would now take part in two stages: the existing inquiry would finish its work and report back in November.

A “second phase” of the inquiry would then begin with a new chair and new commissioners, which would have wider terms of reference. It would report back with recommendations by February 2026.

“It will focus on matters of ongoing public concern including vaccine efficacy and safety, the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland, and the extent of disruption to New Zealanders’ health, education and business,” van Velden said.

Van Velden said she preferred the Government not set a precedent by ending a Royal Commission of Inquiry, particularly given it had originally been expected to report back in September.

She argued the coalition agreements had been met and this was simply a “serious, little, tiny, little bit where we have disagreed”.

She claimed the two-phase approach was the most “fiscally prudent way forward” and defended the decision to continue the current inquiry.

“There was a lot of evidence gathered to date and it would have been a waste of evidence, resources and the commissioners’ time for this to end a few months before it was expected to report back.

“What we’ve done is expand those terms of reference into areas that were missed out in the first terms of reference and there will be additional cost but I think the path forward also saves taxpayers money by not asking us to end and re-litigate all of the evidence that’s already been gathered.”

The second phase was expected to cost about $14 million. Van Velden understood the first phase had cost about 17m so far.

With the new terms of reference including vaccine efficacy, van Velden said she would “ideally” employ commissioners that had legal, medical, public health and economics expertise.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins speculated the new inquiry phase was “an attempt by David Seymour and Winston Peters to try and cook up an inquiry that reinforces their conspiracy theories”. He also appeared to joke Peters would prefer to have former TVNZ host and anti-vaccination campaigner Liz Gunn as a commissioner.

Peters dismissed Hipkins’ claims, saying the Opposition leader could “go down the rabbit hole that he’s talking about and stay down there”.

He accepted NZ First’s promise to hold a new Covid inquiry would be upheld, even if it…