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 Simon Joseph Bridges (born 12 October 1976) is a former New Zealand politician and lawyer. He served as Leader of the National Party and Leader of the Opposition between 2018 and 2020, and as the Member of Parliament for Tauranga from the to ...

, the then

Leader of the Opposition The Leader of the Opposition is a title traditionally held by the leader of the largest political party not in government, typical in countries utilizing the parliamentary system form of government. The leader of the opposition is typically se ...

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 David Seymour may refer to: * David Seymour (English politician) (died 1557/58), 14th-century Member of Parliament (MP) for Wareham and Great Bedwyn *David Seymour (New Zealand politician) (born 1983), leader of the ACT Party *David Seymour (photo ...

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 n ...

. 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 foundati ...

and

New Zealand First New Zealand First ( mi, Aotearoa Tuatahi), commonly abbreviated to NZ First, is a nationalist and populist political party in New Zealand. The party formed in July 1993 following the resignation on 19 March 1993 of its leader and founder, Wi ...

. 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 imag ...

. 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