1 - Why this inquiry was held He aha i tū ai tēnei uiui
The Government announced the establishment of Te Tira Ārai Urutā the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned on 5 December 2022.
The announcement came not long after the public health measures – mask wearing, vaccine mandates, isolation requirements and more – had been retired. Likewise, the extraordinary powers that the Government was able to exercise under legislation throughout the pandemic had been largely wound back.
Even though the virus was still very much a part of daily life, Cabinet considered the time was right ’to invest in a process to learn from Aotearoa New Zealand’s COVID-19 experience and to use those lessons to strengthen New Zealand’s preparedness for any future pandemics’. It was fitting for this task to be undertaken by a Royal Commission – the highest form of public inquiry – given the magnitude of the COVID-19 emergency, the scale and complexity of its impacts, and the toll it had taken on the country’s social and economic wellbeing.4
The then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern confirmed that epidemiologist and public health medicine specialist Professor Tony Blakely would chair the Royal Commission. He would be joined by two members, former Cabinet Minister, the Honourable Hekia Parata (Ngati Porou, Ngāi Tahu) and former Treasury Secretary, John Whitehead CNZM KStJ. All three were subject matter experts who brought a ’unique set of skills’ to the Inquiry, the Prime Minister said.
They would be supported by a secretariat, with the Department of Internal Affairs serving as the host agency. The Inquiry would start hearing evidence from February 2023 and deliver its report by mid-2024 (later extended to the end of November 2024).
Following the 2023 election, the new Government signalled it was considering changes to the Inquiry’s terms of reference. After a public consultation process, it was announced in June 2024 that a second inquiry phase would begin when Phase One ended. It would have different terms of reference and new commissioners. Grant Illingworth KC was appointed as a commissioner, and later appointed chair of Phase Two, alongside fellow commissioners Judy Kavanagh and Anthony Hill. The Phase Two report is scheduled to be submitted by 26 February 2026.