New Zealand's inquiry into how we handled the pandemic has already spoken to hundreds of people of all persuasions, but the work is definitely taking the hush-hush approach.

New Zealanders won't get blow-by-blow dramatic reports into the nation's handling of the Covid-19 pandemic, but the head of the inquiry into it says they'll get a lot more work done that way.

Tony Blakely is the chair of the NZ Royal Commission Inquiry into Covid-19.

Hundreds of people have spoken about their experiences of the pandemic at an inquiry into New Zealand's handling of Covid-19, yet we've hardly heard a thing about it.

And unlike the controversy-filled public hearings at a similar inquiry in the UK, much of the evidence gathered here and the people involved will stay private.

The first stage of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid 19 Lessons Learned - Te Tira Ārai Urutā has been running for several months and industry leaders from farming to the supermarket sectors, as well as small regional groups such as the Tolaga Bay Area School have met with the commissioners.

It is the highest level of public inquiry, but most of the content of those meetings will stay confidential, says Commission Chair Professor Tony Blakely.

That's because the government at the time, led by then-prime minister Jacinda Ardern, decided against the adversarial approach of a public hearing.

Former prime minister Jacinda Ardern announced the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Covid-19 Lessons Learned in December 2022.

"The government said we don't want that, and we're quite happy to work that way. We're doing it the non-adversarial way," Blakely tells The Detail.

The confidential setting of the meetings enables the commissioners - former government minister Hekia Parata, former Treasury head John Whitehead, and Blakely himself - to speak to a wide range of New Zealanders in a short period of time and have "free and frank" discussions.

"Our terms of reference are really wide and quite deep as well," says Blakely. "We've got a lot of territory to cover. We're up to more than 200 organisations that we've spoken to in engagements, and we do that in a confidential setting so that we can cut to the chase. We can get more done in an hour than it might take eight hours in a courtroom to do."…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details