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Labour leader and former Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins thinks phase two of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response is a platform for conspiracy theorists, and he is non-committal about turning-up to give evidence.  

The most committed I’ve heard him so far is saying that he’s working on some written responses. But if that turns out to be the extent of his involvement, then he can forget about being prime minister again.  

Because let me remind you of a couple of things.  

While it was the Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern who, generally, fronted the Government’s Covid response. It was Hipkins —as Covid Minister— who drove it behind the scenes. 

Secondly, if it was good enough for former British Prime Minister Boris Johnson to front up in person to the UK’s Covid inquiry, then it is more than good enough for Chris Hipkins to front up in person to our inquiry.  

In December 2023, Boris Johnson spent two days being grilled by the committee of MPs, which had the job of looking into how his government handled the pandemic. 

This is the guy who told people they had to isolate at home and then had parties at 10 Downing Street.  

This is the guy who disappeared to his country house when Covid was running rampant.  

This is the guy who, somehow, lost 5,000 WhatsApp messages from his phone, which couldn’t be used as evidence at the inquiry. 

This is the same guy who told the UK inquiry that he was the victim of not being properly informed about the seriousness of Covid. 

Boris Johnson is the guy who is widely considered to have cocked-up the response in Britain but who, despite all that, fronted-up to take questions and take the heat over two days.  

And it wasn’t pleasant for him. He was grilled. But say what you like about Boris Johnson, at least he fronted up.  

From what I’ve seen, at no point did Boris Johnson dismiss the inquiry in Britain as a platform for conspiracy theorists.

At no point did Boris Johnson bang-on about the Covid inquiry in Britain creating an opportunity for theatrics from conspiracy theorists.

And, at no point, did Boris Johnson hide behind written responses and weasel words.  

But that is exactly what Chris Hipkins is doing. 

He says he wants to be “cooperative” but “I don’t want to see a whole lot of theatrics. I’m very interested in engaging with them on how we can capture the lessons”.

To be fair, Hipkins probably does have a point about the time period covered by phase two of the inquiry and how it, conveniently, leaves out the time NZ First was in coalition with Labour, but he needs to get over that.

Just like he needs to get over the fact that, yes, there will be no shortage of conspiracy theorists turning up at the inquiry.

But so what? It’s a free world. And we can decide for ourselves how much credence we want to give them.   

But Chris Hipkins shouldn’t be free to decide for himself whether he fronts up in person at the Covid inquiry, or not.

He was Covid Minister and he has to front.