Two prominent Kiwis are throwing their support behind the Government's plan for an inquiry into its handling of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The Government has signalled it will set up an inquiry into the COVID-19 response, but it has not announced specific plans yet. It's also hinted the results could be out before the next election.
It comes after an announcement on Tuesday saw the Government promise to strip itself of powers to implement lockdowns, managed isolation and vaccine mandates.
Former COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins told AM on Wednesday the sooner the country gets results, the better.
"We are getting close to that point we want to see that getting underway," Hipkins said.
"I think it'll take as long as it takes, but I think there is value in moving to get some early results relatively quickly."
Paediatrician Dr Renee Liang told AM on Wednesday an inquiry would be good so the country can plan for the next pandemic.
"My understanding is they want to see how the response went so that they can plan for the next one because there will be a next one or there will be another similar kind of thing that needs a national response," Dr Liang said.
"I guess as somebody who works on the front line, I'm definitely in support of looking at how that went, what went right, what went wrong, and then being able to plan for the future."
Appearing on AM alongside Dr Liang, New Zealand rugby league great Sir Graham Lowe said the Government's response to the pandemic was "successful", but the inquiry needs to be as wide as possible.
"I think it was a fantastic response, really, it's hard to argue how successful it was, but it's like everything, the better it gets, the more nitpicking starts happening," Sir Graham said.
"So now people look back after the event and say, 'well, we didn't need that. We shouldn't have done that,' but really that's just human nature, but I think it's important to get the best things lined up, so when it does happen again, as Renee says, you're ready."
Dr Liang said the inquiry will be an opportunity for people who didn't agree with the Government's handling of the response to have their say.
"I think it's really, really important, for example, the people that felt they were maybe shut out of the country, they really didn't feel they were being listened to," Dr Liang said.
"I think this is an opportunity to have their voices heard and for it to be taken into account for planning for next time."
National Party leader Christopher Luxon also told AM on Wednesday he would like to see an inquiry.
"We've been calling for it for a long time now, for over a year and the reasons are very simple. There are some things that we probably did well. There are things that we didn't do well, but we need to understand, did we get the health response right? Luxon said.
"Did we order enough vaccines? Did we make rapid antigen tests available? Did we get enough antivirals? What do we do about upskilling our ICU beds? But the other part of it is obviously the economic response as well. Did the Reserve Bank spray around way too much cash for way too long and actually contribute to making the cost of living crisis even worse?"
Watch the full interview with Dr Renee Liang and Sir Graham Lowe above.
