Dame Jacinda Ardern says she will give evidence at Covid-19 Inquiry

Wednesday, 9 July 2025

Dame Jacinda Ardern says she will provide evidence to assist the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 response.

This week there was speculation about whether the former prime minister, who is living in the United States, would be called to give evidence at the inquiry, which resumed in Auckland this week.

A spokesperson told The Post she had every intention of providing evidence, if asked to.

“We are in discussions about the best way for this to occur. She is also happy for the commission to access her previous testimony from [the first stage of the Commission of Inquiry].”

The Inquiry team said it was still considering its witness list and who to call.

This week the inquiry, which is examining the Government’s response to the pandemic, has held daily public hearings, so organisations and individuals can tell it about the impacts of the pandemic response.

A second lot of public hearings will take place in August in Wellington.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins, who was the Covid-19 response minister, this week said the inquiry had platformed people with “conspiracy theorist views”.

Hipkins told Herald NOW he was working on written answers for the inquiry, but asked if he would appear in person, said it depended, claiming the second phase of the Inquiry was “far more political” than the first.

The first stage of the Inquiry was launched by the Labour Government in 2022, beginning work in 2023. The second phase, an expansion of the first, was announced by the current coalition Government - ACT-National and New Zealand First-National coalition agreements included commitments to expand the original inquiry.

Phase two was to review key decisions taken by the Labour Government in 2021 and 2022, related to vaccines and lockdowns, particularly the extended lockdowns in Auckland and Northland.

Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden last year said the inquiry would assess whether decisions about lockdowns and vaccine mandates were a reasonable balance between public health goals and social and economic disruption.

It would look at health and education outcomes, and the impact on inflation, debt, and business activity.

“Certainly I want to be co-operative with the Royal Commission,” Hipkins said earlier in the week, adding, “Governments don’t generally establish a Royal Commission to look at political decisions made by their predecessors.

“So this is somewhat unusual, and the terms of reference specifically, well, the terms of reference specifically exclude decisions made when New Zealand First were part of the government.

“So 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.

“That seems to have been specifically written into the terms of reference that they get maximum airtime.”

Sir Ian Taylor this week also wrote an open letter to Ardern, not his first, claiming her leadership had turned into brand management during Covid. Wrote Taylor, “The turning point came for me on the day you featured on the cover of the New Zealand Woman's Weekly, in designer clothes, smiling, styled, and celebrated. On that same day I received a heart-wrenching email from a father who had yet to meet his 7-month-old son.”

A June The Post/Freshwater Strategy poll revealed Ardern, more than two years after her resignation, was a more popular politician with those surveyed than both Chris Hipkins and Prime Minister Christopher Luxon.

Ardern recorded a net favourability of +12, the highest of any figure surveyed in that poll.

Nearly half of voters (46%) viewed her positively, up four points since the poll was conducted in November 2024, while 27% viewed her unfavourably.

Ardern has recently been promoting her memoir, A Different Kind of Power.