Ardern, Hipkins say they co-operated with Covid-19 inquiry

Wednesday, 13 August 2025

Former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern has “co-operated fully” with the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry, a spokesperson says, after claims she and other ministers were not willing to appear.

Ardern had provided “extensive evidence, including through a recent interview that lasted three hours and has also offered access to her evidence from the first Royal Commission,” the spokesperson said. She remained available to answer any further questions.

“The commission's work is important and she will continue supporting them in reaching their terms of reference.'

Earlier an exasperated Chris Hipkins, formerly the Covid-19 response minister, said he has been answering questions about the pandemic response for five years.

“I provided written evidence to the Inquiry, I answered every question that they had. I attended the interview that they scheduled for me, they had asked for two hours, they ran out of questions after an hour. They’ve indicated they have no further questions for me,” the Labour leader said at Parliament on Wednesday afternoon.

That was after Covid-19 Inquiry chair Grant Illingworth KC said the remainder of the public hearings of the inquiry - due to start next week - would be cancelled, appearing to partially blame four former ministers who declined to appear.

According to a minute issued by the Inquiry, on August 7 Ardern, former health minister and now Labour health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall, former finance minister Grant Robertson and Hipkins declined the inquiry’s invitation to appear.

The minute summarised the reasons given by the four, including that their appearance would be “performative” rather than “informative”, and that there was a risk livestreaming or publication of their evidence could be manipulated or misused.

Other witnesses, not named in the minute, had expressed concern about the risk of abuse. Witnesses had reported being abused following earlier hearings in July, the minute records.

Illingworth, in a statement on Wednesday afternoon, said a second week of public hearings into the second phase of the inquiry was no longer justified and the decision “follows former ministers declining an invitation to participate in the hearing”.

The Inquiry believed the ministers appearing in a public setting “would enhance public confidence in its processes”, but acknowledged the ministers and other senior officials had also provided a significant amount of information via private interviews and had offered to provide more if asked.

“We are confident that the former ministers declining to attend the hearing does not hamper us in our ability to obtain the information we need to be able to properly complete our task. Public hearings are only one mechanism of obtaining evidence, and their use is restricted under our terms of reference,” Illingworth said.

The non-appearance of Hipkins, Ardern, Verrall and Robertson has been seized on by ACT and NZ First.

Said deputy prime minister David Seymour: “Hipkins and co loved the limelight at 1pm every day. They wielded extraordinary power over citizens’ lives, dismissing those who questioned them as uncaring. Now they’re refusing to show up, what a contrast.”

But Hipkins said answering further questions from the Inquiry in a public hearing would be repeating himself.

“I’ve been giving evidence publicly every day for the last five years,” he said, “I don’t agree [that it was important for public confidence to appear]. The Royal Commission themselves have said that they made the decision not to hold any further public hearings, including with other decision makers. They’ve set out a variety of reasons for that.

“The fact that we had indicated to them that if they didn’t have any new material… have any new questions for us, that we didn’t see any, that I didn’t see any value in attending an interview to repeat the same questions I’d already answered.”

Asked whether it was fair to say Hipkins thought a public hearing would be performative, Hipkins responded: “That is what [the inquiry] indicated to me. They indicated they weren’t going to be asking anything new.”

In July a spokesperson for Dame Jacinda Ardern said she would provide evidence to assist the Inquiry if asked. In July the Inquiry held a series of public hearings, where organisations and individuals gave evidence as to the impacts of the pandemic on them.

At that time it was still formulating which official witnesses it would call to give evidence publicly. Its interview with Hipkins had been held privately.

Previously Hipkins said the inquiry had platformed people with “conspiracy theorist views” and described the second phase, instigated by the current Government, as “far more political” than the first phase of the inquiry, launched by the previous Labour Government, which examined the use of lockdowns, MIQ, the border response and vaccine mandates.

The second phase specifically examines the decisions by the previous Government, including whether decisions about lockdowns and vaccine mandates were a reasonable balance between public health goals and social and economic disruption, looking at health and education outcomes, and the impact on inflation, debt, and business activity.

Hipkins said previously, “I think that the terms of reference have been deliberately constructed to achieve a particular outcome, particularly around providing a platform for those who have conspiracy theorist views.”

On Wednesday Hipkins said he had spoken to Ardern about the inquiry but denied NZ First leader Winston Peters’ claim on social media that they had “colluded” not to appear.