Phase One of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 Response has this afternoon been released.
Delivered to the Government and made public today, the 713 page report included 39 recommendations for the Government and its agencies to make sure New Zealand is pandemic-ready and resilient.
It looked at issues such as lockdowns, the response at the border and vaccine mandates.
Read the full report here and the summary report here.
The report said in combination with the elimination strategy, vaccination was fundamental to the effectiveness of New Zealand’s Covid-19 response.
It also said “the use of compulsion was one of the most controversial aspects of the Covid-19 response” and that ministers involved in making these decisions weighed up the need to protect public health and individual freedoms and rights.
Testing, contact tracing and masking requirements were “important components” of the response, and the report said practical issues with their implementation “could be improved upon if similar requirements are deemed necessary in a future pandemic”.
A report into NZ’s Covid response has found the health system was strained but never overwhelmed by Covid-19 cases. (Source: 1News)
The inquiry also found it was “reasonable”, based on information available to the Government in 2021, to introduce vaccine mandates for specific occupations such as border and health workers.
Some vaccine requirements were “applied more broadly” than originally envisaged and the report said the case for them “became weaker” once Omicron became the dominant variant in early 2022.
“In our view, some workplace, occupational and other vaccine requirements were applied too broadly and remained in place for too long, which caused harm to individuals and families and contributed to loss of social capital.”
Some found these requirements “reassuring”, but they also had “significant negative impacts” including exacerbating workforce issues and shortages in some sectors, as well as “difficult social consequences” for those who did not choose to get vaccinated.
“The use of mandatory measures – and other aspects of the Covid-19 pandemic – affected trust and social cohesion in ways that may make future pandemic responses more difficult.”
The report named the occupation of Parliament grounds in 2022 as the “most significant civil unrest in Aotearoa New Zealand for some time” and that it was “likely to have far-reaching social consequences”.
“The Covid-19 pandemic was associated with declining levels of public trust in government (as occurred in other countries), particularly in some communities.”
Peak rates of hospitalisation were around half that of the United Kingdom and United States and New Zealand was an outlier in that there were low numbers of Covid-19 related deaths in residential aged care.
The alert level system was hailed in the inquiry as a “world-leading and innovative communication and policy tool” that proved to be highly effective. However, some shortcomings included non-health matters taking a back seat, a lack of long-term planning and a delay in exiting the elimination strategy which was “not well signalled or communicated ahead of time”.
The economic response saw a faster and stronger GDP recovery than many other countries. Lockdowns proved to be effective in 2020 and early 2021, but a stronger public health system could have prevented some of the need.
“At the time, the generous economic response seemed appropriate and was widely supported. But because of the amount of Government spending it required over an extended period, the economic response left a long shadow on the economy.”
The government was not well prepared for a pandemic and although there were “pockets of pandemic preparedness”, it “proved insufficient for an event of the scale, impact and duration” the Covid-19 pandemic turned out to be. The report also found the country was not prepared for the border closures and MIQ.
“While setting up new border processes and MIQ quickly was a huge achievement, both systems had significant shortcomings.
“In a future pandemic, having a larger and more flexible range of quarantine and isolation options ready to activate could create more opportunities for decisionmakers to use these vital pandemic response tools in a way that has fewer negative impacts.”
The report also said efforts by iwi, Māori and many different communities helped alleviate some potential negative impacts of lockdown.
Kiwi kids missed fewer days of school than those in many other OECD countries – but Māori and Pacific students, those from lower socio-economic backgrounds and those in Auckland suffered more than others.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19
The long-awaited Royal Commission was announced in December 2022, with Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern saying at the time there was “no playbook” for managing a pandemic of this scale.
Some of the previous government’s decisions around the response to the pandemic proved extremely contentious, so much so, that both ACT and NZ First campaigned on expanding an inquiry into these decisions.
The first phase of the inquiry was chaired by Professor Tony Blakely, who told Breakfast this morning the report was split into three sections: “looking back at what happened, looking forward at the lessons, and then 39 recommendations”.
It took two years to complete and included 400 meetings held with around 1600 people.
Approximately 13,000 public submissions were also made, while 133,000 pages of local and international evidence were collated.
Professor Tony Blakely, chairman of Phase One of the Royal Commission of Inquiry, spoke to Breakfast about what it has looked at. (Source: Breakfast)
READ MORE: The role and powers of a Royal Commission explained
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden announced a second phase of the inquiry in June, saying this met the requirements of the Government’s coalition agreements to expand the inquiry, “while maintaining the integrity of the statutory inquiry system”.
NZ First leader Winston Peters said his party supported the second phase of the inquiry but disagreed with allowing the current inquiry to continue. He said he believed the first phase was “far too narrow in scope” and remained “compromised” by Blakely’s direct involvement with the previous government and direct planning of the response.
What will the second phase of the inquiry look like?
Minister of Internal Affairs Brooke van Velden said in a statement that the delivery of the phase 1 report marked the conclusion of the first phase of the inquiry.
“Phase 1 Commissioners Professor Tony Blakely and John Whitehead have now resigned from their roles.”
Grant Illingworth KC has been appointed as the chairperson for Phase 2 of the inquiry. He will be joined by commissioners Judy Kavanagh and Anthony Hill.
The second phase of the Royal Commission will examine key decisions made by the Government between February 2021 and October 2022 in relation to Covid vaccines and lockdowns during this period.
Specifically, this inquiry will look at:
- Vaccine mandates
- The approval of specific Covid-19 vaccines
- Vaccine safety, including the monitoring and reporting of adverse reactions
- The nationwide lockdown in August and September 2021 when the Delta variant of the virus was first detected in the community
- The extended lockdown in Auckland and Northland in 2021
- The testing and tracing technologies used over that time, specifically the impact of private sector involvement or non-involvement.
It will also assess the effect the Covid response decisions had on inflation, debt and business activity, as well as on health and education.
As part of this, Phase 2 will examine whether those decisions reflected the advice given to decision makers at the time, and whether they struck a reasonable balance between public health goals and minimising social and economic disruption.
These terms of reference were influenced by more than 13,000 submissions from the public on expanding the scope of the inquiry.
“Allowing the public to have a say on the matters covered by the Inquiry was a commitment in the ACT-National coalition agreement,” van Velden said.
The public are encouraged to have their say by emailing here from November 29, with the final report and its recommendations due in February 2026.
