Latest / Early Edition with Ryan Bridge / Matthew Hague: Lawyer on the impact of the Covid Inquiry findings on current legal cases

Transcript

Matthew Hague: Lawyer on the impact of the Covid Inquiry findings on current legal cases · Early Edition with Ryan Bridge

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: The head of the COVID nineteen inquiry, says vaccine mandates
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: caused huge pain to a substantial minority during the pandemic
• 0:08
  Speaker 1: and the government should consider where the benefits outweigh the harms. Well,
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: I could have told you that for nothing. Today, Professor
• 0:15
  Speaker 1: Tony Blakeley hands over the first phase of the inquiry
• 0:18
  Speaker 1: to the Internal Affairs Minister Brook van Valden. He says
• 0:21
  Speaker 1: the damage to social cohesion needs to be considered before
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: planning for future outbreaks. Matthew Haig was a lawyer who
• 0:27
  Speaker 1: defended a New Zealand Defense Force personnel who didn't want
• 0:31
  Speaker 1: to get the COVID JAB when it was mandatory. He's
• 0:33
  Speaker 1: with us this morning, Matthew, Good morning the boding run.
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: I'll go through the exact comments in just a second,
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: but what's your your brief reaction to that.
• 0:43
  Speaker 2: My action is in some way it does state the obvious,
• 0:46
  Speaker 2: the soiluquill. Part of me wonders if the little adverse
• 0:49
  Speaker 2: comments that Blakeley and the commission does make is a
• 0:53
  Speaker 2: way to pre enter the second inquiry that's to be
• 0:55
  Speaker 2: headed by different commissioners.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: What you think the second one might have gone harder
• 1:00
  Speaker 1: and they're preempting it.
• 1:03
  Speaker 2: I think so. Yes, There's been widespread criticism of Professor Blakeley,
• 1:06
  Speaker 2: who is an epidemiologist who gave direct advice to key
• 1:09
  Speaker 2: government decision makers throughout a pandemic, including doctor Bluefield. Isn't
• 1:15
  Speaker 2: seem to be impartial. And I wonder if the address comment,
• 1:20
  Speaker 2: which really they have no choice but to make, is
• 1:23
  Speaker 2: that way to premp the second quarry.
• 1:26
  Speaker 1: Is there anything legally that can be I mean, once
• 1:28
  Speaker 1: this report comes out, can it form the basis of
• 1:30
  Speaker 1: any kind of further legal challenges.
• 1:34
  Speaker 2: No, not directly, although I think whatever comment and evidence
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: they do present it might be helpful for even challenges
• 1:40
  Speaker 2: that are ongoing today. In twenty twenty four, we're still
• 1:43
  Speaker 2: waste on a Supreme Court decision, there's still cases before
• 1:45
  Speaker 2: the Employment Relations Authority, there are still mandates now in
• 1:48
  Speaker 2: New Zealand.
• 1:50
  Speaker 1: Yeah, and well that's true. How do you think the
• 1:52
  Speaker 1: people who you represented will feel reading what's out in
• 1:56
  Speaker 1: the Herald this morning?
• 1:58
  Speaker 2: Fatigued and I'm surprised.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: Thanks so much for your time. Great to have you
• 2:01
  Speaker 1: on the show. Matthew Matthew Hague, lawyer who defended a
• 2:03
  Speaker 1: client who didn't want the COVID JAB but was forced
• 2:06
  Speaker 1: to get it anyway twenty four minutes after that. Report,
• 2:08
  Speaker 1: by the way, is going to the government today and
• 2:11
  Speaker 1: we don't know when it will see the light of day.
• 2:13
  Speaker 1: I'll just read a couple of words from it here.
• 2:15
  Speaker 1: This is from Professor Blakely. He's the epidemiologist of the
• 2:19
  Speaker 1: first phase of the Royal Commission into COVID, and that
• 2:22
  Speaker 1: is an incredibly important lesson out of the pandemic. When
• 2:25
  Speaker 1: you're doing these types of mandatory things like mandatory vaccination,
• 2:29
  Speaker 1: they really need to be in a context where the
• 2:31
  Speaker 1: benefits far out weigh the harms. Mandates were justified for
• 2:35
  Speaker 1: frontline healthcare workers, border officials, and high risk places like prisons,
• 2:40
  Speaker 1: but he says, as far as it's reached beyond that,
• 2:43
  Speaker 1: I think we have all learned that has to be
• 2:45
  Speaker 1: done very cautiously, even if the majority of the population
• 2:50
  Speaker 1: are of the view that it should be happening.
• 2:53
  Speaker 2: For more from Early Edition with Ryan Bridge, Listen live
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: to News Talk Sat BE from five am weekdays. Follow
• 3:00
  Speaker 2: the podcast on iHeartRadio.