Law makes MP uncomfortable
Hipkins: Pandemic rules gone by end of year
Chris Hipkins says the powers granted under Covid-19 response laws have always made him uncomfortable. The Covid-19 Response Minister yesterday said he hoped most pandemic response rules under the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act will largely be dismantled or replaced by the end of the year.
“Those kinds of extraordinary powers should only be used in an emergency situation, and only as long as they’re justified,” he told the health select committee meeting yesterday.
He added: “We will reach a point, and I hope it will be this year, where the vast bulk of our Covid-19 response will transition to a more business-asusual approach.”
Asked later why he would not be more specific, Hipkins said: “If you could ask Covid-19 what its intentions for the winter are, and let me know the outcome of that, then I could give you a more specific timetable.”
On his discomfort with the law’s powers, he added: “It’s an uncomfortable necessity.”
The health select committee also heard changes to pre-departure testing were likely and the managed isolation network will be largely done away with by early August.
Hipkins said the Crown was unlikely to appeal against April’s Grounded Kiwis court ruling, which criticised aspects of MIQ.
Justice Jillian Mallon found MIQ was a critical component of the Government’s elimination strategy but said the combination of the virtual lobby and narrow emergency criteria meant New Zealanders’ rights to reenter the country was infringed.
Hipkins said MIQ was now largely in use for refugees, arrivals from Afghanistan, and Antarctic scientific staff.
The MIQ network would largely fizzle out by August, he said.
Hipkins also said a review of the Covid-19 response was likely but the exact nature of that review was to be determined.
“For public confidence though, it’ll need to have a good degree of independence.”
Hipkins said a variant “that would send us back to square one” — impervious to vaccines and highly lethal — was unlikely. “But we have to be able to plan for all of those.”
Act leader David Seymour asked Hipkins what the goal of the pandemic response was now. Hipkins said the goal was still to reduce hospitalisations and mortality.
Earlier in the day, Te Pāti Māori said the pandemic response was largely successful and should provide a template for future initiatives in terms of devolving more decisionmaking. “The devolution of Covid funding to Māori to lead our own solutions highlighted that all we need to succeed is for the Crown to step out of the way,” co-leader Rawiri Waititi said.