For nearly 300 days, at least one part of the country was either in lockdown or living under red light traffic settings with Auckland bearing the brunt of the harsh measures. 

Now we're going to find out if it was the right thing to do.

"It's the right thing to do," Ardern said. 

The Government has green-lighted a Royal Commission of Inquiry into our COVID-19 response.

"I think the reason that it is incredibly important though, that we use the most significant inquiry or level of inquiry that we have, is because of the significant impact of COVID-19."

It's a Royal Commission with a difference.

Usually led by a judge, our COVID probe will instead be led by a panel of experts.

Enter ex-Treasury secretary John Whitehead, former Cabinet minister Hekia Parata and epidemiologist Tony Blakely.

"We're not here to lay blame, we're not here to pursue agencies who may have not done the best things, we're here to learn the lessons from those things," Blakely told Newshub. 

Looking back at our COVID response, there aren't just lockdowns to look into. There's also PPE stocks, the way critical legislation was passed under urgency, our vaccine rollout, contact tracing, the economic response, the availability of RATs, border restrictions, our preparedness for different variants and vaccine mandates.

 READ MORE

• Concern of 'significant wave' of cases coming, return to red could depend on how health system copes
• Jacinda Ardern is 'losing her shine' at home, New York Times article says
• Pan-coronavirus vaccine could be on market in a year's time - vaccinologist
• Rare and life-threatening COVID-19 side-effect affecting Australian children

The summary of the terms of reference says the consideration of the interests of Māori and the impact on essential workers will be part of this mega inquiry.

But the Reserve Bank's independent monetary decisions throughout the pandemic won't be.

"What is excluded is the Reserve Bank's independent monetary policy and the individual decisions that would've been made by that," said Ardern.

National leader Christopher Luxon said: "I think there's some ambiguity about that".

"What we really need to see is a separate inquiry into the actions of the Reserve Bank and how it has contributed to possibly worsening the cost of living," he said.

The Prime Minister later clarified overall policy like money printing is in, but for instance, individual interest rate decisions are not. 

"Monetary policy is included," Ardern said. "What is specifically excluded are the individual decisions made by the monetary policy committee, in part because of the independence of that committee."

In terms of timing, the Royal Commission must report back by June 2024, which is good news for the Government because if there are any questions over its decision-making ahead of next year's general election, it can point to the yet-to-be-finished report. The answers though are something the public perhaps deserves before heading to the voting booth.