The Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned Te Tira Ārai Urutā, has had a remarkable level of public engagement in its Phase Two, with 31,000 submissions received by the Sunday, April 27th deadline.
Despite the massive public interest and the importance of learning from the Covid response the inquiry has been largely overlooked by major TV networks and most of the New Zealand media.
Phase One of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned | Te Tira Ārai Urutā received over 13,000 submissions despite excluding important questions such as vaccine safety and efficacy.
This almost tripling of submissions for Phase 2 highlights the public interest in areas the government would prefer to have ignored.
The one media report that has covered this was RNZ Morning report, where reporter Corin Dann questioned the Royal Commission Chair when questioned over issues like Vaccine Safety said.
“Just Like any court hearing we have to look at both sides of the story.”
The 2025 “Trust in News in Aotearoa New Zealand” report from the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) Centre for Journalism, Media and Democracy (JMAD) shows a marginal decrease in overall trust in news, from 33% in 2024 to 32% in 2025. While still low, this suggests a slowing down of the sharp decline observed in previous years.
“It’s not surprising that the public has lost trust in news media news” says Aly Cook, Publicist board member and media spokesperson for NZ Outdoors and Freedom Party “if mainstream media fail to cover such important news as this public inquiry with unprecedented level of public engagement, the public will look elsewhere for news.”
“The 31,000 submissions to Phase Two of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into COVID-19 Lessons Learned | Te Tira Ārai Urutā, is potentially the largest ever for such an inquiry in New Zealand. It’s inexplicable that it has not been headline news.” Said Sue Grey Leader, of the NZ Outdoors Party and a specialist in complex emerging issues who has law science and public health qualifications .
Aly Cook, mother of a formally diagnosed & ACC accepted vaccine-injured son , previously saw her petition to Parliament, which called for a Royal Commission into COVID-19 vaccine safety and efficacy (a topic excluded from the first inquiry), garner significant public support with 23,098 signatures – that petition also experienced apparent media silence.
Adding to the concern over the lack of media coverage of significant public engagement with the Royal Commission, there’s also been a similar lack of reporting on the level of vaccine injury and deaths recognised by ACC. ACC’s latest proactive release, as of January 2025, shows 5 ACC recognised deaths in New Zealand linked to the COVID-19 vaccine, alongside $12.6 million in ACC payouts to those who have experienced vaccine-related injuries. This significant data on acknowledged adverse events has also seemingly been underreported by major news outlets. https://www.acc.co.nz/assets/oia-responses/covid-19-vaccination-claims-refresh-january-2025.pdf
The New Zealand Outdoors and Freedom Party believes that in 2025, four years after the pandemic’s onset, it’s crucial for the media to present balanced perspectives, as Grant Illingworth said in his interview “Just Like any court hearing we have to look at both sides of the story.” This balanced approach is essential for the media to regain public trust and support, especially considering the perceived lack of coverage surrounding significant public engagement with the Royal Commission of Inquiry and ACC data on vaccine injuries and deaths.
The media don’t give a f… Listen to the interview Penny Marie NZ (on YouTube) did with Shane Christie and he’ll tell you what the media think.
O&FP had some of their members injured during the Covid vaccine protests on Parliament’s grounds.
Some of those injuries were caused by the NZ Police and were serious, with many continuing to be disabling and debilitating.
O&FP, along with New Conservatives, and NZ First need to form a coalition with the NZ Loyal Party, or merge into the same in order to beat the Uni-Party politics in the next 18 months.
One former O&FP member suggested this some time ago, but it appears that the ego factors of the various Parties ‘leadership’ got in the way!
The end result is what we are all now suffering under Zionist Luxon and his WEF / WHO accomplices.
While I made submissions to both phases 1 and 2, this is like pushing manure uphill. Why would the media care? It’s clearly up to each of us to “do” our own media.
The trust in media has been eroded throughout the western world so this is nothing new in NZ https://www.rt.com/news/616515-eu-media-freedom-deteriorating/
Details for media breakdown for some European countries https://www.liberties.eu/f/oj-aem
We we see a lot of back peddling when the report comes out, no excuses for what was done, it was all a fraud,. Most of all I feel sorry for all the vaccine injured, their life will never be the same, the gaslighting they have endured is unforgivable.
People need to go to prison
Of course the MSM is silent on this…after all, the J3w$ own and control the NZ Media and the narratives.
Covid was a J3wi$h project, and just check out how Jared Kushner and his yamulk buddies benefitted from the disaster!
https://thehill.com/homenews/news/528330-trump-organization-kushner-companies-benefited-from-pandemic-relief-loans/
https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2020/10/a-real-estate-firm-co-owned-by-jared-kushner-is-looking-to-profit-from-the-pandemic/
Its a white wash. The lack of mainstream media coverage, demonstrates this clearly. They do as their government handlers, tell them.
There will be no justice in New Zealand, as long as globalists, hold the reins of office. Its really just that simple. So stop being cowards, New Zealand. Vote for new party, next election and throw the globalist political parties on the scrap heap of history, where they emphatically, belong.
I would 100% love to vote for such a new party which would collectively compete to exceed that 5% MMP threshold. But our “freedom” votes appear fragmented among too many different parties. there needs to be some organisation and strategy here now to unite the freedom votes in some way.
The PTB are and have been preventing the NZ Loyal Party from opening a bank account in the Party’s name.
They’re using the excuse of ‘money laundering’ and ‘potential terrorist’ as the excuse.
NZ Loyal Party has been de-banked here in NZ…& is now looking overseas for a bank to help the NZ Loyal Party.
This is so the membership needed (500) will be subverted and subterfuged by the Uni-Party.
How’s that for ‘democracy’, which is being prevented by the MSM, PTB and the current Uni-Party Government?
Imagine the uproar if the Greens, Maori or NZ First were actively being de-banked…!
34,000 Kiwis voted for the NZ Loyal Party in the last (s)election…and they are being DENIED THEIR RIGHT TO AFFILIATE WITH THE PARTY OF THEIR CHOICE BY THE ARROGANT SHITS IN THE UNI-PARTY AND THEIR GLOBALIST ZIONIST HANDLERS!
DTNZ needs to do a major story on this with follow-ups over the next 17 months.
Even the ‘Electoral Commission’ offered little help with getting NZ Loyal Party Candidates on the ballots. While Liz Gunn (nee Cooney) took the blame for this, she should have had much better help and guidance from the ‘Electoral Commission’, but this was deliberately with-held.
The Old Boy Networks went into overtime to prevent a properly-based political party from coming to the forefront.
What sayeth Winston Peters about all of this?? Or the Maori Party?
The political hypocrisy in this country knows no bounds!