NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party demands Hipkins resign over Covid vaccine safety claims

The NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party (NZ OFP) is calling for the immediate resignation of Leader of the Opposition, Chris Hipkins, following an investigation revealing that Hipkins was part of the Vaccine Ministers meeting that decided to remove critical safety warnings from the public of New Zealand about youth vaccine risks from myocarditis.

He later actively misled the media about his role in this process, the timing and his personal knowledge as Minister of Covid response and later Prime Minister, say NZ OFP.

The investigation, spearheaded by NZ OFP leader and lawyer Sue Grey alongside prominent publicist and researcher Aly Cook, was launched in the wake of the Phase Two Royal Commission of Inquiry, to establish why critical safety data concerning myocarditis risks was withheld from the public.

Following the Royal Commission findings, Hipkins vigorously defended himself in the media, pleading ignorance to journalists and specifically stating, “I didn’t recall the existence of the Cabinet paper in question.” He went on to tell broadcasters like Ryan Bridge that if he had remembered the late-March 2022 Cabinet paper, which explicitly warned that a second Pfizer dose “may add an unnecessary risk of myocarditis” to children under 18, he “might have added an extra word or two to what I said earlier.”

Now, an explosive official paper trail dismantles Hipkins’ narrative of a “memory lapse” and administrative oversight, proving he knowingly misled the public of New Zealand, and he knew of the risks months earlier than he claimed, well before the NZ government pushed widespread coercive mandates and their “Two Shots for Summer Campaign” which discriminated against the unvaccinated, and targeted young people. This goes beyond the Royal Commission findings and shows Hipkins was actively involved on suppressing safety information over 6 months earlier, NZ OFP.

What is myocarditis?

Myocarditis and pericarditis are types of heart inflammation. They were identified as early as April 2021 as being unwanted side effects of the mRNA vaccine but largely glossed over as being rare and temporary.

However, the first NZ mRNA shot myocarditis death was recognised by the NZ government in July 2021 but not publicised. 26 year old Dunedin plumber Rory Nairn died in November 2021 twelve days after his first mRNA vaccine which he took so he could attend his own wedding. The pathologist and coroner both attributed his death to the mRNA shot, and the Health and Disabilities Commissioner subsequently found that there was no informed consent because he was not made aware of the risks of heart inflammation by his vaccinator. This was despite a 13-year-old Wellington schoolboy dying suddenly of post vaccine myocarditis a few weeks earlier. Wanaka mum Amanda Smees also died of myocarditis after her mRNA shot in early 2022.

Health NZ published a report on widespread harm from Myocarditis in September 2024, recognising the serious ongoing harm from post mRNA shot myocarditis. This shows that by October 2022 almost 500 qualifying cases of post shot heart inflammation had been both reported to the government CARM register and diagnosed by specialists. The NZ Medicines Regulator Medsafe safety reports and ACC claims consistently show large numbers of myocarditis and pericarditis reports. See January Proactive release “A200Covid-19-vaccination-claims-refresh-january-2026.pdf” and further OIA gained as proactive release omitted the payout for 6 fatalities and permanent injury ACC Claims “GOV-045943- Response (4) .pdf” Showing total paid out to NZ injury claims as of Jan 2026 at $18,981,668.

The Paper Trail: Chaired Meeting Omitted and Altered in Diaries

An Official Information Act (OIA) response from the Ministry of Health (Manatū Hauora), obtained by Cook late on Friday the 29th of May 2026, confirms that from 1:30 PM to 2:15 PM on Friday, 13 August 2021, a high-level “Vaccine Ministers” meeting took place via Zoom.

The Ministry of Health has officially confirmed in this response that Chris Hipkins served as the Chair of this meeting in his capacity as Minister for COVID-19 Response. Joining him were then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Finance Minister Grant Robertson, Health Minister Andrew Little, and Associate Health Ministers Dr. Ayesha Verrall, Aupito William Sio, and Peeni Henare, alongside top officials from Medsafe, the COVID-19 Directorate, and the Director-General of Health.

The Ministry of Health confirmed that this meeting was left entirely unminuted, and no notes were kept, despite occurring just days before a formal report on myocarditis from Chris Hipkins was delivered to Vaccine Ministers on 19 August 2021.

Cross-referencing by Sue Grey and Aly Cook has revealed a staggering level of discrepancy across the leadership team’s records regarding this un-minuted meeting:

• The meeting is completely omitted from the official ministerial diaries of Jacinda Ardern, Chris Hipkins, and Andrew Little.
• In the official ministerial diary of Grant Robertson, the meeting entry appears with a date change and moved completely out of chronological order.

The Correspondence: What Was to Be Discussed Regarding Youth Myocarditis Risks

While the meeting itself was left unminuted, explicit internal correspondence obtained from a separate OIA file, “August correspondence Towns-Bloomfield H2026079967 Documents (2).pdf”, proves exactly what was scheduled for discussion. On Thursday, 12 August 2021, Chief Science Advisor Dr. Ian Town emailed top health officials and Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield, writing that their advice on the use of the Pfizer vaccine in 12–15-year-olds “will be further considered by Cabinet on Monday after discussion at our regular Vaccine Ministers zoom meeting tomorrow afternoon (Friday 13th)”.

An internal Ministry of Health brief titled “Draft Bullets: CV TAG discussion on DTU for 12-15 year olds, 13 August 2021” outlines the precise 7 points finalised at 12:46 PM on 13 August, just 45 minutes before Hipkins’ Zoom meeting commenced, detailing specific clinical concerns regarding youth vaccine risks from myocarditis:

• Point 1 & 2: An agreement to vaccinate children aged 12 to 15 years, noting benefits to community coverage and reducing school disruption.
• Point 3: Direct acknowledgment that the younger age group was a lower priority compared to older and at-risk groups at that time.
• Point 4 & 5: Serious concerns that a school-based COVID-19 rollout would negatively impact other vital youth immunization schedules like HPV and measles catch-ups.
• Point 6: A clear suggestion for a one-dose schedule for 12–15-year-olds to mitigate safety and capacity risks, noting that one dose provides good protection while mitigating operational strain, allowing a second dose to be reviewed later as data comes in.
• Point 7: The deliberate re-wording and removal of explicit myocarditis warnings, where CV-TAG recommended that “the wording around the potential benefit that an extended dosing interval may have with regard to myocarditis risk should be removed or re-worded to make it clear that there may be a benefit but the evidence is emerging”.

Three Days Later: The Smoking Gun – Undated Cabinet Paper Signed by Hipkins Totally Omits Known Risks

On Monday 16 August 2021 Chris Hipkins presented a paper to all his Cabinet colleagues which has no mention of the risk of myocarditis for young people. The investigation exposes this undated Cabinet paper titled “Decision to use the COVID-19 Pfizer vaccine for children aged 12 to 15 years”, was authored and signed off for lodgement by Hon Chris Hipkins himself,

This document reveals a glaring, calculated omission of the safety data Hipkins, Jacinda Ardern and their Ministerial colleagues were alerted to by Chief Health scientist Ian Town. Instead Hipkins’ Cabinet paper focused on non safety aspects of Ian Towns CV-TAG’s August advice, to support the inclusion of children aged 12 to 15, claiming benefits like equitable Māori and Pacific coverage and a reduction in school closures.

Despite Hipkins claiming that officials were ensuring “transparent and consistent communications on the decision to use for children aged 12 to 15 years,” the paper does not even mention myocarditis. It has no safety warnings, completely hides CV-TAG’s active discussion regarding a safer, alternative one-dose schedule to mitigate youth safety risks.

The Minister completely fails

Hipkins sanitised the document to Cabinet resulting in safety risk being scrubbed from the public. Instead the extended weeks between first and second dose were explained as a logistical victory to “allow more people to receive their first dose sooner” and “enhance a person’s immune response with no additional safety issues.”

What does “safe and effective” actually mean?

Hipkins Cabinet advice for the 16 August 2021 meeting relies on approval by Medsafe to claim the risky mRNA treatment was “safe and effective”. However careful analysis shows that the “safe and effective” claim was both unlawful and deceptive, as in medico jargon “safe and effective” is not what it seems.

The documents show that in 2021 our NZ medicines regulator Medsafe was NOT satisfied it knew mRNA treatment was “safe and effective.” Just months earlier in February 2021 Medsafe had recommended AGAINST its approval at all. Under pressure from the mystery “MAAC” committee Medsafe deferred, and gave conditional provisional consent.

The law expressly prohibits reliance even on full Medsafe approval for justifying claims of ‘safe and effective’, as these words are used in a technical sense of “safe enough based on the information we currently have” rather than being “safe” in the publicly understood sense of not causing harm.

Chris Hipkins’ advice to the cabinet was that communication consistency was important. The result is that their “safe and effective” messaging was prioritised over informed consent and warning the public of known potentially serious risks.

The Consequences

Three days after Hipkins’ unminuted ministerial meeting, official minutes from the next formal COVID-19 Vaccine Technical Advisory Group (CV-TAG) meeting on Tuesday, 17 August 2021, show that health chiefs abandoned the softer approach of “re-wording” the safety narrative.

Under Section 6.0 (“Myocarditis after Pfizer Vaccination”), the minutes confirm that advisors skipped mere re-wording and decided to completely remove the safety link from public view. The minutes state:

“It was requested that references to increasing dosing intervals potentially providing some protection against myocarditis be removed from communications. This has been actioned.”

Compounding the lack of transparency, the investigation exposes that Point 6 of this 17 August CV-TAG document was entirely redacted in several copies of the files originally released to the public under the OIA, heavily obscuring the track record of how youth safety warnings were managed behind closed doors.

The Deception Exposed

The investigation exposes that Chris Hipkins knew about the risk of myocarditis many months before his claim to the media, that he was unaware until late March. Risks for youth rollout controversies in a late-March 2022 Cabinet paper. He was personally chairing high-level, unminuted Zoom meetings with vaccine leads and Medsafe on these exact seven points as early as August 2021 and subsequently lodged a sanitised Cabinet paper that completely buried clinical concerns, alternative single-dose safety strategies, and emerging youth safety risks from his own Cabinet colleagues and the public. This occurred months before the government unleashed its aggressive “Two Shots for Summer” marketing blitz and sweeping mandates on New Zealand youth.

Quotes from the Investigators

Sue Grey, Leader of the NZ Outdoors & Freedom Party, states:

“Chris Hipkins was Minister of Covid Response, a former Prime Minister and he wants to be re-elected in November. People trusted him. He stood before the media, lied to journalists, and misled the public of New Zealand by claiming he knew nothing about the safety risks of the Covid. mRNA treatment However the government’s own documents that Aly and I obtained under the OIA prove he lied. He chaired the Vaccine Ministers meeting and then presented a paper to Cabinet on 16 August 2021 that claimed the mRNA treatment was “safe and effective” when he knew it put healthy New Zealanders’ hearts at risk. Chris Hipkins lied and New Zealanders died as a consequence. Many others suffered permanent heart damage. It was an orchestrated deception.

“There is a huge public interest in requiring integrity from our elected representatives and in holding them to account. Chris Hipkins must resign, apologise and face Parliament’s Privileges Committee to show accountability to the public and send a message to others.”

Aly Cook, Publicist and Co-Investigator, states:

“New Zealand parents made life-altering decisions for their teenagers under the promise of full government transparency. To now have a signed letter from the Ministry of Health obtained late on Friday the 29th proving that Chris Hipkins chaired an unminuted meeting on these very issues in August 2021, while the meeting is completely omitted from his public diary records, is an unforgivable breach of public trust. His own signed Cabinet document proves he deliberately kept Cabinet in the dark regarding the serious cardiac and safety counter-arguments health advisors were raising that very same week. The paper trail doesn’t lie, but the politicians did. They knew the risks, changed the messaging, redacted the files, and actively misled the public of New Zealand.”

Demands for Immediate Resignation

In a press release today, the NZ OFP said that Chris Hipkins’ position as a political leader is entirely untenable.

“He can no longer hide behind memory lapses or blame a failure of communication by health officials. Because he chaired un-minuted meetings, sat at the center of mismatched official timelines, signed off on sanitised Cabinet papers that omitted critical clinical risks, and intentionally lied in the media to escape accountability over withheld youth health risks, the party demands his immediate resignation from the Leadership of the Opposition.”

Online petition calling for Hipkins’ resignation

An online petition calling for Hipkins’ resignation has been set up at peoplesinquiry.nz.

UPDATE: An Official Information Act (OIA) response from the Ministry of Health (Manatū Hauora), obtained by @KiwiAly late on Friday the 29th of May 2026, confirms that from PM to PM on Friday, 13 August 2021, a high-level “Vaccine Ministers” meeting took place via Zoom.

The… pic.twitter.com/Cdxvd1tVzZ

— Aly Cook (@KiwiAly) May 31, 2026

Documents:

• NZ OFP website
• Jacinda Ardern Ministerial Diary August 2021
• Minutes COVID-19 Technical Advisory Group, 17 August 2021
• Chris Hipkins Ministerial Diary August 2021
• Correspondence Ian Town to Ashley Bloomfield, August 2021
• Cabinet Paper – Decision to Use Covid-19 Pfizer Vaccine for Children aged 12-16, lodged by Chris Hipkins
• Friday 13 August 2021 meeting agenda
• OIA response, 29 May 2026
• Andrew Little Ministerial Diary August 2021
• Grant Robertson Ministerial Diary August 2021