3.0 Introduction Kupu whakataki
Introduction | Kupu whakataki
As our terms of reference make plain, the purpose of revisiting the response to COVID-19 is 'to strengthen Aotearoa New Zealand's preparedness for, and response to, any future pandemic by identifying those lessons learned ... that should be applied in preparation for any future pandemic.'978 In other words, the point of looking back is not to apportion blame but to ensure New Zealand is better informed ahead of the next pandemic, better prepared for the challenges we know it will bring, and better equipped to recover.
While building pandemic resilience is not a task for government alone, government should lead the way. It should begin by ensuring its own house is in order, with systems, tools, policies and processes that are as agile and robust as possible. It should safeguard the conditions in which resilience can flourish. Government should recognise that aspects of the response may be best designed and delivered with (or by) others – community and business networks, the private sector and more.
The four lessons that follow are intended to support government in its resilience-building role. Although they arise from the COVID-19 response specifically, we are confident that they can be usefully applied to future pandemics whether they are similar to COVID-19 or not. They focus on four fundamentals which – on the basis of our assessment of New Zealand's COVID-19 experience – we consider absolute pre-requisites for a future pandemic response:
Lesson One:
Systems that promote good government decision-makingLesson Two:
Legislation: the guardrail for fundamental rights and freedomsLesson Three:
Agile and robust economic policyLesson Four:
Readiness for social impacts and post-pandemic recovery
Each lesson begins with a summary of what can be learned from examining relevant COVID-19 response decisions, drawing either on our own analysis or the findings of the Phase One report, or both. We then set out what we think the government needs to do before, during and after another pandemic. Where we found that COVID-19 decisions delivered positive outcomes, we identify the systems and external conditions that are needed for this to happen again. Where we found scope to improve the decision-making systems and practices adopted during the COVID-19 pandemic, we describe
what they could look like in future. Where we found that decisions led to adverse impacts, we identify how government can anticipate, avoid and/or mitigate such impacts in future or – recognising that some impacts may be simply impossible to foresee or minimise – address them as early as possible in the recovery phase.
In some cases, our lessons lead to recommendations: steps that give practical effect to the lessons. We urge the government to implement these as soon as possible. However, we have not always made recommendations. Some lessons identify issues or potential solutions that would require extensive research or specialist knowledge that are beyond the time and resources of this Royal Commission. We nonetheless highlight such issues as areas for further work by those with appropriate expertise.
Moreover, our lessons recognise that not all challenges likely to surface in a pandemic are particular to pandemics. Instead, they may be manifestations of much wider social, economic and political problems that tend to be exacerbated in times of crisis, such as dwindling trust in government and the rapid spread of untested information across multiple platforms.
Such problems are often global in scale and so enduring, complex, interconnected and resistant to solutions that simply managing them may be the most realistic short-term option.979 It is certainly beyond the scope of this Commission, or indeed any single government, to ‘fix’ them. Nonetheless, there are things that New Zealand can do to anticipate, mitigate and recover from even these apparently intractable problems. Depending on their nature, monitoring, learning from other jurisdictions, international collaboration, scenario planning and modelling can all play a part, as our lessons highlight.
Who these lessons are for ...
Mā wai ēnei akoranga …
These lessons try to gather up what we have learnt from COVID-19, then translate it into advice for the officials, agencies and decision-makers who will lead the next pandemic response. As a result, there is a focus on government systems and decision-making processes, social and economic policy and legislation – things that may seem abstract, complex and removed from the realities of our individual and collective lives.
However, government systems, processes, policies and institutions shaped New Zealand’s experience of the COVID-19 pandemic and will do so again in another pandemic. They will affect how people and communities of all kinds weather and recover from it – urban and rural communities; people with a variety of financial, health and family circumstances; small and large business-owners; remote workers and workers at direct risk in a pandemic; the young and the old; the employed and the unemployed.
The lessons presented here are intended to ensure the outcomes of another pandemic are as positive as possible, for as many as possible. They may be directed at a government audience in the first instance but, ultimately, they are for everyone.
... and where they are drawn from
… a, I pūtake mai i hea
In developing these lessons, our thinking has been informed by the diverse sources described in Part 1 (section 1.1.2). They include documentary evidence provided by agencies involved in the response, the testimony of former ministers and senior officials who made or implemented key decisions, and information and perspectives shared by leading scientific and economic experts. We gained additional insights by commissioning or undertaking fresh research into the pandemic’s impacts. In areas like student learning and the economy, we had the advantage of an extra year of data, analysis and reflection beyond that available in Phase One, and we think our lessons are the stronger for it.
Our lessons are also grounded in what we heard about COVID-19’s impacts from our face-to-face engagements and thousands of public submissions. Through these channels, we have had access to a wide range of perspectives on how the pandemic and the response affected New Zealanders – iwi and Māori, Pacific and other ethnic communities, business and sector representatives, non-governmental organisations, grassroots volunteers, people with disabilities and many others.
The rich and considered evidence they provided is essential to Part 3 and made a powerful impression on us. We hope that the following lessons reflect and honour that richness and the experiences – some highly personal and painful – that were shared with us.
978 Royal Commission of Inquiry (COVID-19 Lessons) Amendment Order (No 2) 2024, Schedule 2, cl 3, https://www.legislation.govt.nz/regulation/public/2024/0177/latest/LMS984331.html
979 Brian W. Head, 'Wicked Problems in Public Policy', in M van Gerven and others (eds), Encyclopedia of Public Policy (Springer, 2023), https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-90434-0_43-1
John Alford and Brian W. Head, 'Wicked and less wicked problems: a typology and a contingency framework', Policy and Society 36.3 (2017), https://doi.org/10.1080/14494035.2017.1361634