NZ Government Ponders How to Loosen the Reins of COVID-19 Response Inquiry

The current government inherited a COVID-19 Royal Commission Inquiry—and its chairman—from Labour. Now, it’s wondering how far it needs to go in making changes.

Chair of the NZ Royal Commission in the COVID-19 response, Professor Tony Blakely. Courtesy of the NZ Royal Commission/Department of Internal Affairs/CC BY 4.0

Back in December 2022, New Zealand’s then-prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, announced the country would hold a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the government’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, calling it “the highest form of public inquiry and ... the right thing to do.”

It was to be chaired by Australian-based epidemiologist Professor Tony Blakely, alongside two members, former Cabinet Minister Hekia Parata and former Treasury Secretary John Whitehead, an economist.