The Epidemic Response Committee was a select committee of the
New Zealand House of Representatives. It was established on 25 March 2020 during the
52nd Parliament in response to the
coronavirus pandemic
The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identifie ...
. Its purpose was to hold the government to account with regards to its response to the coronavirus pandemic, as the rest of Parliament was shut down to contain the pandemic. The committee was chaired by
Simon Bridges, the then
Leader of the Opposition.
Michael Woodhouse
Michael Allan Woodhouse (born 1965) is a National member of the New Zealand Parliament.
Early years
Woodhouse was born and raised in South Dunedin, the fifth of nine children. He attended St Patrick's, St Edmund's and St Pauls High School, no ...
, the Opposition Health spokesperson, was designated as deputy chair on 5 May 2020. On 26 May 2020 the committee was disbanded by a motion passed by the
52nd Parliament with leader of the House Chris Hipkins stating the committee was no longer needed as New Zealand had moved to COVID-19 alert level 2, and parliament could function largely as it did pre lockdown.
The committee had eleven members. Permanent members of the committee were Bridges as chairperson and
David Seymour as the sole member of
ACT New Zealand
ACT New Zealand, known simply as ACT (), is a right-wing, classical-liberal political party in New Zealand. According to former party leader Rodney Hide, ACT's values are "individual freedom, personal responsibility, doing the best for our natur ...
. Other members are made up from the various parties represented in parliament; four
National Party members in addition to Bridges, three members from the
Labour Party, and one member each from the
Green Party
A green party is a formally organized political party based on the principles of green politics, such as social justice, environmentalism and nonviolence.
Greens believe that these issues are inherently related to one another as a foundation f ...
and
New Zealand First.
The committee met via
Zoom
Zoom may refer to:
Technology Computing
* Zoom (software), videoconferencing application
* Page zooming, the ability to magnify or shrink a portion of a page on a computer display
* Zooming user interface, a graphical interface allowing for image ...
.
The membership of the committee was as follows:
Key
References
{{Coronavirus pandemic in New Zealand
National responses to the COVID-19 pandemic
COVID-19 pandemic in New Zealand
Parliament of New Zealand