Just asking questions

Phase 2 of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid response is deeply political - but so was phase 1.

- Danyl McLauchlan

Phase 2 of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 reponse is now under way. Phase 1 was supposed to be the only phase but all of the opposition parties were unhappy with the narrow scope and terms of reference Labour set for the investigation. Those parties are now in government, and Labour is unhappy with the design of the terms of reference. The inquiry’s subtitle is “Lessons learned”, and so far we've learned that even the once-elevated nature of our royal commissions can be broken by partisan hackery.

These inquiries are supposed to be the gold standard of political oversight. They are convened when something is so terrible or so important - a terrorist mass murder; the abuse of children in state care - it must transcend politics. Most of the mechanisms by which MPs, public officials and corporations routinely conceal their perfidy and incompetence are superseded. Even the police and intelligence agencies can be subject to public oversight. Justice must be seen to be done.

This was a problem for Labour. There had to be a review of the nation's greatest crisis since the war. But it's all very well to demand transparency and oversight into state agencies, private companies and even previous governments. Much less appealing to subject themselves to such uncomfortable scrutiny. The heroes of the pandemic response - Chris Hipkins, Sir Ashley Bloomfield, Dame Jacinda herself - could be called before the public hearings and cross-examined as if they were common senior officials. This would never do.

AFTER THE PANDEMIC