Phase Two of the Royal Commission’s Inquiry was supposed to deliver real scrutiny of the actions of New Zealand’s key decision-makers during the COVID era. It was ‘meant’ to question those responsible and bring the evidence into full public view.

Instead, it fell short of the scrutiny the public was promised. The Commission chose not to fully exercise its powers to compel key decision-makers to give public evidence, and to withhold significant portions of the evidentiary record from view.

In doing so, it further exposed the inner workings of the very institutions entrusted to serve the public and uphold justice, revealing how deeply a bureaucratic bias towards protection over accountability is entrenched.

However, despite this failure, a substantial body of evidence remains in the public domain, evidence revealing that those in charge wilfully ignored serious warnings, and made decisions that led to widespread harm.

The Peoples Report documents that evidence, for all to see.

The findings of the Royal Commission’s Phase Two risk setting a dangerous precedent—that decision-makers can act without meaningful consequence.

When key evidence is withheld and those responsible are not fully examined, accountability falls short and trust in the system erodes. This erosion is already visible in the rampant loss of public confidence in the government, media, and institutions.

While the official record may fall short of justice, the public record remains, and for those willing to look, it still carries weight.

The People’s Report was created to make that weight visible, distilling the evidence into a clear, accessible form, so it can be understood, scrutinised, and no longer obscured by technicality, bureaucracy, or omission.

This is a substantial, multi-part work released in chapters. What you’re reading is the first of many, each examining key decisions and defining moments of the COVID response based on the abundance of information available at the time.

Together, they form a structured paper trail of the decisions, actions, and betrayal that devastated the lives of millions, bringing into focus the accountability the Royal Commission failed to deliver.