Hipkins ChrisEPIDEMIC RESPONSE COMMITTEEDisestablishmentHon CHRIS HIPKINS (Leader of the House): I move That the Epidemic Response Committee be disestablished.When Parliament met just before we began the COVID-19 lockdown it would be fair to say that not many members of the House had any idea at that point how events were going to unfold over the next eight weeks or so. We knew what the worst-case scenario might be—or we feared what the worst-case scenario might be—having looked around the world and seen how COVID-19 had taken off in other jurisdictions overwhelming their health systems and leading to pretty drastic and Draconian measures being taken in those countries to bring it under control. New Zealand made the decision as a country and led by the Government to go hard and go early and it worked. We did not know that it was going to work eight weeks ago—or more than eight weeks ago now—when we met here in this Parliament. We made the decision at the time that Parliament would also not meet during the period of the lockdown and that was a big call to make. It was a big call to make because many of us myself included believe that Parliament has a vital role to fulfil in scrutinising the actions of the executive and that becomes all the more important in a time of national emergency when the Government is exercising the extraordinary powers that the Government has been exercising during the COVID-19 response.It was important that parliamentary scrutiny was able to continue during that time even if Parliament itself did not meet. After some quite interesting negotiations we formed the view collectively as a Parliament that the way to do that would be to establish a special select committee that that select committee would be chaired by the Leader of the Opposition and that it would include an Opposition majority. The committee would meet remotely using Zoom or other technology whether it's teleconference or otherwise. Where possible those meetings would be broadcast—and they were broadcast—and they would be able to call witnesses or whoever they wanted to scrutinise the actions of the Government. Ministers who played critical roles in the COVID-19 response appeared before the committee and answered questions I think in good faith and were subject to quite rigorous scrutiny of the actions that they had taken. Some Ministers appeared multiple times before the committee and some of the key officials involved in leading that process also appeared before the committee.I would like to thank the Hon Simon Bridges the then Leader of the Opposition for his work in chairing the committee but also in particular—returning back to the circumstances under which we created the committee—for the goodwill that was shown in supporting the Government's decision to stop Parliament meeting during the period of the lockdown. I do appreciate that for the Opposition that's a bigger sacrifice than for the Government in the sense that they lose their opportunity to scrutinise the Government and I think that between Simon Bridges Gerry Brownlee myself and the others involved in the Business Committee discussion we were able to come up with a solution—a pragmatic solution—that I think served the New Zealand people well. It was well attended and well watched by those both livestreaming and also using the Parliament TV channel and I think the committee has served a very useful purpose.When we moved to level 3 the role of the committee changed. As we resumed question time as more regular parliamentary scrutiny resumed the committee still had a role in scrutinising COVID-19 - specific legislation that was referred to it by the Government and that was to be passed by the House—SPEAKER: By the Parliament.Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: By the Parliament. I said by the Parliament" I thought. Did I say by the Government?SPEAKER: No no. Refer to it by "the Parliament".Hon CHRIS HIPKINS: It was introduced by the Government and referred to it by the Parliament and that was to be passed in a very very short time frame. So the committee did have an opportunity to scrutinise that legislation as thoroughly as they could given the time constraints. Again I think they did a very good job of that and I've already acknowledged Michael Woodhouse who played the role of facilitating and chairing those particular sessions. I thank him again for the work that he did there.Parliament is now back more or less as normal. Members are able to attend the House. The legislative programme has been resumed. Question time is happening every day. Select committees can meet again and Ministers will all be appearing before select committee in the coming weeks to discuss the Budget Estimates. So the regular function of parliamentary scrutiny that is so vital has now resumed and therefore the Epidemic Response Committee has concluded the job that it was set up to do which was to fill the void created when Parliament was no longer meeting.I do again want to say to all members involved on both sides of the House that I believe that this was an incredibly important thing for the New Zealand Parliament to do. I believe that it differs from other jurisdictions other Parliaments around the world where the Parliament has been shut down and there is no parliamentary scrutiny of the actions of their Governments. I think that at a time of national emergency there does need to be scrutiny. It's more important than ever and the New Zealand Parliament was able to come up with a mechanism to do that and I think that that's something that we should all be proud of."