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Covid Inquiry: Report Says Lockdowns Went on Longer than Needed, Spending Too High
The Royal Commission found New Zealand's Covid-19 response broadly effective but highlighted imperfect mandate application and prolonged restrictions, issuing 24 recommendations for future preparedness.
- On Tuesday the Royal Commission of Inquiry released its report, saying the Covid response was 'considered and appropriate' but left 'scars', with 24 recommendations.
- Coalition agreements with NZ First and Act led to the launch of the second phase in December 2022, with commissioners Grant Illingworth, Judy Kavanagh and Anthony Hill gathering evidence for 15 months.
- The commission found vaccine mandates were imperfectly applied but valid, affecting some 12–17-year-olds despite CV TAG advice, while testing relied too long on PCR tests and delayed rapid antigen tests.
- The government will review the report's findings and must table responses by July, with Simeon Brown criticising past decisions and stating, 'I think they were putting options to Cabinet, which were not backed up by advice'.
- Recommendations call for better modelling and measures to prepare for future pandemics, as the report affirms New Zealand's low death rates but warns about economic consequences of unheeded warnings.
18 Articles
18 Articles
Inquiry Praises NZ’s COVID Response, But Says Mandates Went ‘Beyond What Was Necessary’
The inquiry into New Zealand’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic has concluded the second and last stage of its investigation and produced a report with 25 recommendations on how similar crises should be handled in the future. It found fault with several aspects of the former Ardern Labour government’s actions around balancing civil rights with health priorities but concluded that, overall, lives were saved by the response. “By many measures, Ne…
Second COVID inquiry: why being politically prepared for the next pandemic is crucial
Lynn Grieveson/Getty ImagesCOVID-19 changed the course of New Zealand’s political history. Labour’s 50% of the vote in 2020 came from a huge electoral swing as a reward for the main coalition party’s effective evidence-based policies, and then prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s leadership. It gave the party the first (and possibly last) single-party majority under the MMP proportional system. But as the second report of the Royal Commission of Inqu…
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