New Zealand’s COVID-19 Inquiry Enters 2nd Phase, as Coalition Partners ‘Agree to Disagree’

New Zealand is to expand the terms of reference for the independent Royal Commission into COVID-19 Lessons Learned, as Internal Affairs Minister Brooke Van Velden announces the inquiry will enter a second phase with new commissioners. That has prompted New Zealand First—one of three parties that make up the government, along with National and ACT—to use the “agree to disagree” clause of the coalition agreement to signal its opposition. The party agrees with the scope of the next phase of the inquiry but strongly opposes the decision to first complete the current Royal Commission and allow its chair, Tony Blakely, to remain in place until it does....