Simon Bridges (left) last year chaired a well-performed epidemic response committee scrutinising the performance of the Government and key officials like Director General of Health Ashley Bloomfield. Declining to revive the Opposition-led online epidemic response committee (ERC), which had performed incisively and honourably during last year’s lockdown, certainly was. What can the Epidemic Response Committee do? So why, this time, has the Government instead determined that scrutiny is best applied from existing parliamentary select committees meeting online? Well, there was absolutely no safety problem with the ERC meeting every bit as virtually as the House committees now do, so that just leaves issues of scrutiny.

Source: Stuff August 24, 2021 16:52 UTC