About this report | Mō tēnei pūrongo

This report presents summaries of public submissions to Phase Two of Te Tira Ārai Urutā | the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned. Submissions summaries are supplemented by information offered to the Inquiry by a wide range of sector and regional body representatives.

Public submissions process | Te tukanga tuku kōrero tūmatanui

Phase Two of Te Tira Ārai Urutā | the Royal Commission of Inquiry COVID-19 Lessons Learned (the Inquiry) accepted public submissions for a period of 12 weeks, from 3 February to 27 April 2025.

Note that as the public engagement process does not canvas the views of the whole population, the views expressed in this report are not necessarily those of the general public.

Sectoral and regional engagements process | Te tukanga a tūtanga, a rohe hoki

Between April and June 2025, the Inquiry conducted 42 engagements with a diverse range of organisations, businesses, community groups, and individuals. The engagements were structured as two types of meetings: sectoral engagements, and regional engagements across four locations – Auckland, Northland, Christchurch and Hamilton.

Findings synthesise both the common themes that emerged across multiple sectors and regions, and the distinct impacts experienced by different individuals and groups during New Zealand’s pandemic response. These insights, drawn directly from participants’ experiences and recommendations, provide practical guidance for strengthening New Zealand’s preparedness for future health emergencies.

The views of these groups are presented throughout this report in the most relevant section.

Report structure | Te hanganga o te pūrongo

This report divides the submission summaries into the following themes.

Main themes

1. Vaccine safety, approval, and rollout
2. Vaccine mandates
3. Lockdowns, in particular those of late 2021
4. Testing, tracing, public health materials
5. Overall response

Cross-cutting themes

• Communication and information
• Misinformation and non-mainstream ideas
• Social division and mistrust
• Māori, iwi, and Pacific perspectives

Main themes are those that submitters were specifically asked about in the consultation process. Cross-cutting themes include other topics that arose in submissions.

Within themes, topics are presented according to whether the submitter supported that particular aspect of the Government response, whether they had a negative assessment of that particular aspect of the response, or whether mixed ideas and opinions were expressed.

Each theme is then further divided by the key topics that arose, presented in order of most to least discussed. In most submissions, people made points on multiple topics and so each topic they talked about was included in the relevant theme and topic

Quotes are included to illustrate the sentiment and depth of feeling of submitters, and to communicate people’s experiences in their own words. For editorial consistency, quotes have had spelling and grammar corrected, offensive language has been removed, and ‘COVID-19’ has been used where submitters referenced the pandemic.