SIMEON BROWN: Hipkins must explain his decisions to team of five million

Chris Hipkins must explain to Kiwis why he left Auckland in lockdown longer than was necessary, and why Labour embarked on a massive spending spree that New Zealanders are still paying for today, following the release of the COVID-19 Inquiry.

Aucklanders endured some of the longest COVID-19 restrictions in the world. Businesses wondered if they would survive, parents had to explain to their kids why they couldn’t see their grandparents, and funerals were held without the people who should have been there.

Aucklanders accepted those sacrifices because they trusted the restrictions were necessary. Chris Hipkins stood up and told them he was following the health advice. He wasn’t.

The Royal Commission has now confirmed that Chris Hipkins kept Auckland locked down longer than required, despite receiving advice that restrictions could end sooner.

The Royal Commission has also confirmed that unredacted Cabinet papers reveal the Ministry of Health warned Hipkins the Auckland boundary was unnecessary and impractical and should be lifted. Despite that advice, he kept it in place for another 32 days over the Christmas and New Year period and never told the public.

He knew that advice and chose to ignore it, leaving businesses shut, families separated, and people pushed past their limits for no public health reason.

Put simply, Aucklanders were asked to sacrifice more than they needed to, and they were never told the full story.

But the consequences didn’t stop when the lockdowns ended. Labour paired these extended restrictions with huge government spending that New Zealanders are still paying for today.

Labour ignored repeated warnings about the scale and effectiveness of its spending, with the economic consequences still being felt.

Treasury told Labour from the beginning that COVID-19 spending needed to be timely, temporary, and targeted. Labour ignored that advice.

The result was a $60 billion COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund across 821 programmes, around half of which had little or nothing to do with the pandemic.

The Royal Commission found Labour’s highly stimulatory fiscal and monetary policies drove house prices to unsustainable levels and fuelled inflation.

That’s why families today are dealing with higher mortgages, higher rents, and higher grocery bills. Many households are still paying the price for decisions Labour made during the pandemic.

The Royal Commission found:

• Around half of Labour’s $60 billion COVID-19 Response and Recovery Fund had nothing to do with the pandemic;

• Labour’s ‘shovel-ready projects’ failed Treasury’s test of being timely and temporary;

• Highly stimulatory fiscal and monetary policies pushed house prices far above comparable countries and fuelled inflation;

• Labour left New Zealand with far less flexibility to respond to future crises; and

• Labour missed repeated opportunities to improve its economic decision-making.

It makes sense now why Chris Hipkins refused to front publicly at the Commission’s hearings.

He owes an explanation to every Aucklander who endured a lockdown that went on longer than it needed to, and to every family still feeling the squeeze from Labour’s economic decisions.

National has spent two years making the tough calls needed to repair Labour’s damage. The last thing New Zealand can afford is a Labour-Greens-Te Pāti Māori coalition with no fresh ideas and no lessons learned from its own failures.

Timeline of events in Auckland

What

When

New Zealand goes into Alert Level 4 (lockdown).

18 August 2021

Ministry of Health’s public health assessment indicates that cases in Auckland are trending downwards.

12 Sept 2021

Ministry of Health’s public health assessment recommends that Auckland move to Alert Level 3 (from Alert Level 4) on 16 September 2021.

12 Sept 2021

Director-General of Health, Sir Ashley Bloomfield, agrees with the Ministry of Health’s public health assessment.

12 Sept 2021

COVID-19 Response Minister, Hon Chris Hipkins, takes an Alert Level review paper to Cabinet, noting the Director-General’s advice that Auckland could move to Alert Level 3 from 11:59pm Thursday 16 September.

13 Sept 2021

Hon Chris Hipkins also raises an alternative option in his Cabinet paper to hold Auckland at Alert Level 4 until 21 September 2021.

13 Sept 2021

Hon Chris Hipkins recommends his alternative option in his Cabinet paper.

13 Sept 2021

Cabinet agrees with Hon Chris Hipkins’ recommendation to keep Auckland at Alert Level 4 for a further week. [CAB-21-MIN-0370].

13 Sept 2021

Alert Level 4 (lockdown) ends in Auckland. Auckland enters Alert Level 3.

21 Sept 2021

Relevant sections of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19

• Volume 1 of the report | Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 on 21 September 2021 after five weeks at Alert Level 4 | Paragraphs 609-612.

• Volume 1 of the report | Cabinet took further decisions on alert levels and transitioning to the new Framework as case numbers continued to grow in November 2021 | Paragraph 662.

• Volume 2 of the report | Lesson 3 Agile and robust economic policy | Various paragraphs between 1189-1316.

Simeon Brown is Minister of Health in the National led-Coalition government