Covid Watch

A call for an inquiry over mistakes made during our Covid-19 response.

Northland was plunged into level three after two women travelled to the region and subsequently tested positive for Covid-19.

Officials originally said they had provided false information to get travel permits, but it's been revealed they were issued in error instead.

Former New Zealand First Northland MP Shane Jones told Kate Hawkesby their refusal to hold an inquiry is due to overconfidence.

He thinks the Government thinks it will win the election without having to care about the north.

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National is promising a Covid-19 inquiry if it's elected.

The Northland region was plunged into level three last year after women who travelled there returned positive Covid-19 results.

Now officials have admitted they issued travel permits in error.

National Party Covid-19 spokesperson Chris Bishop says his party would have an inquiry started within the first 100 days of taking over.

He told Mike Hosking a variety of people would be on the panel.

Bishop says he'd like retired judges, economists and health professionals.

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New documents released under the Official Information Act have revealed the truth about the highly publicised case of three women who travelled from Auckland to Northland in October 2021 in the midst of a Delta outbreak, putting Northland into an alert level 3 lockdown.

The OIA papers show the women - who had earlier been blamed for using "false information" to get travel permits - had no links to gangs and weren't sex workers, as had been suggested, and their permit had been approved in error.

NZ Herald crime and justice senior journalist Anna Leask spoke to one of the women involved not long after the incident and joined Simon Barnett and James Daniels Afternoons.

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Before I join the calls from various people, organisations, and political parties for the Government to apologise for the unnecessary 11-day lockdown of Northland, I would like to apologise to the two women who were at the centre of this latest stuff up that's been revealed.

The two women who were accused of using illegal documents to travel across the Auckland border into Northland, and who it was insinuated, were sex workers working for the gangs.

The women were publicly vilified for crossing the border, with then Covid Response Minister Chris Hipkins accusing them of using false information to travel. The case also saw reporters asking Ardern whether the women were prostitutes, and former Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters was forced to apologise for falsely claiming the pair were helped by Harry Tam, the Hawkes Bay based Mongrel Mob leader.  

The police inquiry summary said the police investigation found no evidence to suggest the woman had any connection to Harry Tam, or the Mongrel Mob, or that they were involved in prostitution. I wasn't able to find my opener for the day that the news was revealed, the reason why we've gone into lockdown, but I have absolutely no doubt I would have gone and boots and all.

So for the unfair comments about the women’s character that I undoubtedly made, I do unreservedly apologise.

And the Government departments should be apologising too – MBIE and Social Development - on behalf of the nameless bureaucrat who knew three days before Northland was locked down that the women were not in fact gangster’s moles, that they had a legitimate business.  

It just reinforces what I've said all along,  if faceless bureaucrats cannot be held responsible for the decisions they made during that dreadful year around who could travel, who could not; if they cannot be held responsible for denying the father of a child the right to support his partner in hospital. For denying parents the right to be by the bedside of sick children. For denying children the right to be with their dying parents.

Then the respective heads of MBIE and the ministers responsible should be held accountable.  

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National is calling on the Government to apologise over the 11-day Covid lockdown last October.

The Government blamed the lockdown on the two women using false travel documents to cross the Northland border and there had been suggestions the women were doing sex work for the gang scene.

But documents obtained by our newsroom reveal the women weren't sex workers, had no gang links, and had correct documentation which officials had issued in error.

National Whangaparāoa MP Mark Mitchell told Mike Hosking what's happened is outrageous.

“They went up there quite legally, they were allowed to go up there.”

The Housing Minister says the Government is working hard to solve issues with Rotorua's emergency motel system.

Clients in the system have accused housing charity Visions of a Helping Hand of intimidation and abuse of power, and there are reports of violence and poor conditions within the motels.

Megan Woods says Rotorua has been rapidly growing and putting people in motels, is better than leaving people on the street.

She told Mike Hosking they haven't been lazy in trying to provide an alternative.

“We have been on a massive building programme for having state houses there, we have delivered 209, there’s another 300-odd under construction at the moment.”

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A Rotorua mayoral candidate says the city needs to urgently shift away from emergency housing motels.

National and Te Pati Maori are calling for an inquiry into the system after a TVNZ report exposed tenants in poor conditions.

Some residents housed under the charity Visions of a Helping Hand are accusing that group of intimidation and abuse of power by staff and security workers.

Rotorua District Council member and mayoral candidate Tania Tapsell says told Kate Hawkesby we need to focus on long term solutions.

She says we need to build social housing not rely on emergency housing.

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A Northland mayor isn't hiding his frustration, with the blunder that forced Northland into an 11-day Covid lockdown last October.

The Government accused the two women who sparked the lockdown of using false travel documents to get across the Northland border, allegedly to be sex workers within the gang scene.

But documents obtained by our newsroom show the women weren't sex workers, had no gang links, and had correct documentation, issued in error.

Speaking to Mike Hosking, outgoing Far North Mayor John Carter isn't hiding his feelings.

“It just pisses you off, it makes you angry. This is just typical of the invisible, arrogant Wellington bureaucracy.”

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Tough times for universities are forcing them to look at their balance sheet.

Around 230 staff face redundancy at AUT, despite the university having a $12 million surplus last year.

Universities New Zealand Executive Director Chris Whelan says inflation has hit the sector hard.

He told Mike Hosking the lack of international students is also causing dramas. 

Whelan says it will take a while to return to pre-pandemic numbers, if we return there at all.

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