Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Andrew Dickens: A different take on the Covid Inquiry

Transcript

Andrew Dickens: A different take on the Covid Inquiry · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So the COVID inquiries on looking at MiQ. We all
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: know that MiQ had noble aims and notable successes, but
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  Speaker 1: we also know the execution was far from perfect and
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  Speaker 1: many people ended out feeling ostracized. The whole idea of
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  Speaker 1: this inquiry is to find out what went wrong so
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  Speaker 1: we do better next time. Yesterday, Leis Morgan, the chief
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  Speaker 1: operating manager of Sadima Hotels, wrote an incredible piece in
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  Speaker 1: The Herald on the rights and wrongs of MiQ. I
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  Speaker 1: want to read some of this. He learned at a
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  Speaker 1: one pm briefing that his hotel had been requisitioned for
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  Speaker 1: an MiQ facility. The problem is no one told him
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: or his team, and the first refugees were expected that day.
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  Speaker 1: He wrote. The hotel in question have been closed indefinitely,
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  Speaker 1: meaning staff have moved on. There were no consumables or
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  Speaker 1: peep peep e on site. I'm proud to say our
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: local staff welcomed the first guest by eight pm that
• 0:45
  Speaker 1: same day with full ppe and operational procedures. These were
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: staff who had left the business earlier in lockdown, but
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: came back to bravely face an unknown health risk and
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: the enormous task of recommissioning our hotel all in the day,
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  Speaker 1: or because they thought it was the right thing to
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: do to help save the lives of fellow New Zealanders.
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: They are all heroes and they deserve to be properly
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: recognized by the government. Damn right. There's a COVID memorial
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  Speaker 1: wall in London. It's got two hundred and fifty thousand
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  Speaker 1: individually hand painted red heart. It's so moving to see it.
• 1:16
  Speaker 1: We have nothing like that in New Zealand. This inquiry
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  Speaker 1: will not give everybody what they want. It will prove
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  Speaker 1: MiQ to be neither right or wrong, but it will
• 1:24
  Speaker 1: remind us that there were silent heroes in New Zealand
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: who we have not thanked nearly enough for More from
• 1:32
  Speaker 1: Early Edition with Ryan Bridge. Listen live to News Talks
• 1:35
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• 1:38
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