Fatal Tauranga landslides: what the government inquiry is doing and how to have your say
People now have until 4 September to share what they know with the government inquiry into the deadly landslides in Tauranga. The deadline was pushed back by three weeks.
The inquiry is looking into two landslides that hit the Tauranga area on 22 January 2026, killing eight people. Six died at Mauao (Mt Maunganui) when heavy rain sent mud and debris down onto a campsite. Another landslide hit three properties on Welcome Bay Road in Pāpāmoa, killing two people. According to the NZ Herald's Bay of Plenty Times, there were 42 landslides on Mauao alone during that storm.
The government set up the inquiry in February 2026. A government inquiry is a formal investigation that can gather evidence and make recommendations, but it cannot find anyone guilty of a crime. Former Supreme Court judge Sir Mark O'Regan is leading it, and the Department of Internal Affairs is running the day-to-day work.
The inquiry's job is to work out how the landslides happened and whether the agencies involved did enough to manage the risk. It has to produce a final report with recommendations.
Submissions opened in July. The inquiry is accepting written accounts, as well as video, drone footage, photos, and rain gauge measurements through an online portal.
The extra three weeks gives residents, agencies, and anyone else with relevant information more time to come forward. First-hand accounts from people who were there during the storm can fill in gaps that official records might miss.
The two landslides happened on the same day but in different places, with different land uses and different rules involved. So something relevant to one landslide might not be relevant to the other. The deadline extension applies to both.
Some parts of the inquiry may not be fully public. That is normal for government inquiries when they involve sensitive personal information or matters still being looked into by others.
Police and the coroner are also looking into the landslides, and the Tauranga City Council and WorkSafe have each started their own investigations. The government inquiry is not operating alone — its findings will sit alongside whatever those separate investigations conclude.
What is worth keeping an eye on is what this inquiry might mean for how New Zealand handles natural hazards, plans where things get built, and what councils are responsible for. The Mauao and Pāpāmoa sites raise real questions about hazard risk on council-owned and private land, and about what was known before the storm hit.
If you want to submit evidence — whether written accounts, photos, video, or rain gauge data — you have until 4 September to do so through the Department of Internal Affairs inquiry portal.
