The Inquiry is in the final stages of its work, however this has been impacted by COVID-19. As advised in our 25 March 2020 update, the private hearings on the Inquiry’s confidential draft report as detailed in Minute No 22 were cancelled due to COVID-19. The Inquiry instead invited further written submissions, which the Inquiry has now received.

While the Inquiry has been able to move forward with a significant amount of work remotely while New Zealand was at Alert Level 4, there were some matters which it was unable to progress without access to classified material. Now that New Zealand has moved to Alert Level 3, the Inquiry will be able to access classified material and complete its work.

As a result of COVID-19, the Inquiry sought, and has been granted, a short extension to its reporting date of 29 May 2020. The report is now due to be delivered to the Attorney-General by 17 July 2020. The Gazette Notice can be found here.

Documents
The Inquiry has published several more documents that have been reviewed under the protocol for reviewing classified material. The new documents relate to Operation Burnham and detention and can be found here.

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