The Breaking Views blog is administered by the New Zealand Centre for Political Research at NZCPR.com. The views expressed are those of the author alone.
That Blakely was an Ardern appointment was problematic enough in terms of how bright a light would be shone on edicts surrounding Covid but that he was a friend of Bloomfields and a Government advisor on those same contentious edicts, suggested to most of us that he would experience difficulty in steering the inquiry to any conclusion other than NZs performance had been exemplary.
Her comments raise an important question. Does New Zealand want future governments to have the unrestricted ability to impose nationwide blanket lockdowns or should there be thresholds of scrutiny to prevent an abuse of that authority?
Former British Supreme Court Justice Lord Sumption, an outspoken critic of the excessive use of force by democratic governments, questioned the use of lockdowns for Covid at the start of the pandemic: “Is this serious enough to warrant putting most of our population into house imprisonment, wrecking our economy, destroying businesses that honest and hardworking people have taken years to build up, saddling future generations with debt, depression, stress, heart attacks, suicides and unbelievable distress inflicted on millions of people who are not especially vulnerable and will suffer only mild symptoms or none at all?”
