Trouble in coalition paradise? NZ First ‘agrees to disagree’ on Covid inquiry
It marks the first official rift between coalition partners
Mōrena, and welcome to The Bulletin for Wednesday, June 26, written by Alice Neville.
In today’s edition: Final report in sight for abuse in care inquiry, evacuations on the east coat in wild weather, and a watered-down three strikes bill makes it to parliament. But first, NZ First breaks ranks over the coalition’s plan for the Covid inquiry.
A ‘second phase’ to the Covid inquiry
NZ First has triggered the “agree to disagree” provision in the coalition agreement over the revised terms of the Covid-19 inquiry, marking the first official rift in a happy(ish) three-way government marriage. Yesterday afternoon, internal affairs minister and Act deputy leader Brooke van Velden announced a second phase of the Covid-19 royal commission would be launched in November, once the current inquiry delivered its report. The second phase, essentially a whole new inquiry, would feature new commissioners and “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”, according to a press release from van Velden’s office. “Having a second phase of the Royal Commission meets the requirements in both the Act and New Zealand First coalition agreements while maintaining the integrity of the statutory inquiry system,” it continued.
NZ First’s bone of contention
What van Velden’s statement didn’t mention was NZ First not being so keen on another crucial component of yesterday’s announcement – allowing the first phase, ie the original inquiry established under the previous Labour government, to continue. As Duncan Greive wrote for The Spinoff in September last year, the commission was set up to be “forward-looking and non-adversarial”, with its full name, “Royal Commission into Covid-19 Lessons Learned”, leaving no room for doubt as to its focus on planning for the next pandemic rather than assigning blame for any failings. NZ First had repeatedly criticised the commission and accused the chair, epidemiologist Tony Blakely, of bias. “We believe that ‘phase one’ of the Royal Commission is simply a continuation of the current inquiry, which is far too narrow in scope and remains compromised by the current chair’s direct involvement with the previous government’s administration and direct planning of the Covid pandemic response,” said NZ First leader Winston Peters in a press release yesterday, sent at the same time as van Velden’s. Speaking to reporters yesterday, van Velden described this divergence as “a serious, little, tiny, little bit where we have disagreed, reported the Herald, while prime minister Christopher Luxon said it proved everything was tickety-boo: "I think what you are seeing is a mature, responsible and well-functioning coalition government,” he told Newshub.
What ‘agreeing to disagree’ actually means
What it says on the tin, essentially. According to the Cabinet Manual, this provision “may allow ministers within the coalition to maintain, in public, different party positions on particular issues or policies”, but they must “implement the resulting decision or legislation, regardless of their position throughout the decision-making process”. While yesterday’s contrarian display was the provision’s debut appearance this parliamentary term, this is not Winston Peters’ first rodeo. As Thomas Manch wrote for The Post, the “agree to disagree” clause was triggered twice during NZ First’s coalition with Labour, over an increase to tobacco tax in 2019 and the decision to maintain alert level two outside of Auckland in September 2020. The provision was brought in from 1999 after – you guessed it – Peters (then deputy prime minister to National’s Jenny Shipley) was sacked from cabinet for publicly disagreeing with its decision to sell the government’s stake in Wellington airport. (While they weren’t officially coalition partners, Labour and the Greens did “agree to agree to disagree” in 2020.)
The commission’s progress so far
Given 13,000 submissions have been received and $17m spent, according to van Velden, it seems unlikely scrapping the inquiry was ever really on the table. The minister told reporters the two-phase approach was the most “fiscally prudent way forward”, reported the Herald. “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.” Writing for The Spinoff in March, Stewart Sowman-Lund summarised the commission’s activities to date: online submissions from the public were received from the start of this year, while earlier the focus had been on “direct engagement” in different parts of the country, including Te Tai Tokerau, where commissioners met with iwi, businesses, health and education providers to hear about their experiences during the pandemic. Blakely and fellow commissioner John Whitehaed yesterday thanked those who had contributed so far. “The vast amount of information we have gathered, and the diverse experiences we have heard about, are all helping to inform our report that will be completed by the end of November this year.” The report of the second phase is expected in February 2026.
Join The Spinoff Members
“The Spinoff is one of the great pleasures of my reading life, the repository of timely and quality journalism that continues to surprise, delight and inform.” Denise, Spinoff Member since 2020.
If, like Denise, you enjoy our work and want to support us, please consider becoming a member today. Already a member? Ka nui te mihi, your support means the world to us.
Three strikes is back – kind of
The introduction of a bill to parliament yesterday to restore three strikes sentencing has given the government another opportunity to promote its tough-on-crime credentials. But the law is a shadow of its former self, wrote Derek Cheng in the Herald. In announcing the new legislation was on its way in April, associate justice minister Nicole McKee said it would address the most egregious problems with the old law (covered by Anna Rawhiti-Connell in a Bulletin then), but the bill that emerged yesterday has gone even further, essentially “handing judges enough discretion to make the harshest policies redundant”, wrote Cheng. Why? Because of a scathing regulatory impact statement from Ministry of Justice officials, which said the law would cost millions of dollars with no “significant quantifiable benefits”.
Abuse inquiry report one step closer
The country’s biggest and costliest inquiry has delivered all 2,500 pages of its final report and recommendations to the governor-general, Dame Cindy Kiro. It’s expected to be made public likely at the end of next month. The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care was announced in February 2018 and, after many delays and extra funding allocations due to Covid, it’s expected a redress scheme for the more than 200,000 victims will be recommended. RNZ has the full timeline and in December, The Spinoff’s Charlotte Muru-Lanning and Tommy de Silva reported on how survivors have found the inquiry experience and what they’re hoping for out of the final report.
Huge news: The Spinoff live events are selling out
Apologies to all the not-so-early birds in Wellington but our live Gone By Lunchtime event in the capital has officially sold out. The remaining events for our popular columns, podcasts, pop culture takes and politics are selling fast so secure your tickets today.
Click and Collect
The messiness and infighting around WCC's decision to sell its airport shares continues. “D-Day is here,” reports Tom Hunt today for The Post, as councillors will have the chance to vote down the entire long term plan. It would be an unprecedented move, but the fact that it is being considered shows just how heated this debate has become.
The latest 1News Verian poll has put NZ First back above the 5% threshold after the latest 1News poll in April showed them out of parliament.
Live: Evacuations are underway on the east coast due to heavy wind and rain, with police going door-to-door in some areas. A state of emergency has been declared in Heretaunga Ward in Hastings District.
NZ Rugby has posted a $9m loss for the last financial year, with CEO Mark Robinson acknowledging more work was needed to become sustainable. The reported loss comes during a stand-off over NZR’s governance model.
Yesterday’s heavy fog was beautiful but left many flights grounded, including those meant to be taking schools to the kapa haka nationals in Nelson.
First-term Hamilton councillor Andrew Bydder has been called upon to apologise by the national director of Vision Impaired NZ after he posted an expletive-laden rant about Waipā’s council online. The rant included a number of ableist slurs.
Right now on The Spinoff: Gabi Lardies theorises that New Zealand is one big crappy flat with successive negligent landlords. Liam Rātana reports that Matariki events are at risk after funding cuts. Shanti Mathias compiles an abbreviated history of Cook Strait ferries. Duncan Greive reviews Jerry Seinfeld bringing complaint comedy to Spark Arena. Jennifer Smart loves Invercargill - and its poetry festival too. For The Cost of Being, an out-of-work theatre maker on the benefit breaks down his costs.
Sporting snippet with Mad Chapman
While most people will be talking about the All Blacks selection this week, there’s an even more thrilling selection saga unfolding in Dunedin. Logan Park High School is preparing to send its Otago interschools chess champions to Nationals. Only problem is, it’s the B team. After the surprise upset at interschools, the B team is now being made to play against the school’s A team again to retain their spots in the Nationals squad despite being clear regional winners. The B team players (and champions) appear surprisingly chill about the extra tournament and potentially having their spots taken but I’d like to read at least another 2,000 words – and preferably watch a mini series – on how this happened.
That’s it for The Bulletin today, thanks for reading. Stewart will be back tomorrow.
Let me know in the comments, or get in touch with me at thebulletin@thespinoff.co.nz, if you have any feedback on today’s issue or anything in the news.
If you liked what you read today, share The Bulletin with friends, family and colleagues.
Peters on Morning Report this morning was totally unhinged. Boy he sure is way down the wormhole and pandering to his conspiracy theory voters.
Looks like you’re Winston’s demographic.