The Government has received the final report from an inquiry into how agencies handled the Tom Phillips case, Attorney-General Chris Bishop has confirmed (RNZ).

The inquiry was run by Justice Simon Moore KC. It looked at whether government agencies — like Police and Oranga Tamariki, the children's welfare agency — did everything they reasonably could to keep Phillips' children safe. Then Attorney-General Judith Collins announced it in November 2025 and gave it a deadline of 21 July 2026 (RNZ).

The report met that deadline. Bishop said parts of it will likely need to be removed before the public can see it, because it involves children and police operations. He said he aimed to release it by around mid-August. He could not say whether the report's findings would require new laws. If they did, he said, it would be "highly unlikely" Parliament could pass them before the election (RNZ).

The inquiry was not allowed to look at decisions made by judges or courts. It also did not hold any public hearings — all its work was done in private (RNZ).

Tom Phillips died in a shootout with police on 8 September 2025. He had been living in the bush with his children for 1,358 days. During the shootout, Phillips shot a police officer several times (RNZ).

The Government had been signalling an inquiry for weeks before it was officially set up. A week after the shootout, on 15 September 2025, the Prime Minister said there would be scope for a Government inquiry (Beehive). By 13 October, the Prime Minister said the Government was taking advice on it (Beehive). On 3 November, it was still being set up (Beehive). Later that month, Phillips' family welcomed the news (RNZ).

Removing parts of a report before public release is standard when children and police operations are involved. The real question is how much useful information is left after that process, and whether the public version answers enough of the questions people have about this case. Bishop's mid-August target gives about three to four weeks for that work, which is tight but not unusual.

Bishop was also upfront about the timeline for any law changes. By saying any new law would almost certainly not pass before the election, he is managing expectations early. If the report recommends changes that require new laws, a future government would have to carry them out.

The fact that the inquiry could not look at court decisions matters here. During the nearly four years Phillips spent in the bush with his children, much of the public debate was about whether the Family Court could or should have removed the children from his care. Moore's inquiry was not asked to answer that. What it could look at is how the government agencies around those decisions behaved.

With no public hearings and a report that will have parts removed, the inquiry was always going to face questions about how much it actually reveals. Once the recommendations are out, they will show whether the Government sees this case as closed, or as one that exposed gaps needing a fix. Bishop's uncertainty about whether new laws are needed suggests he has not settled that question yet, or is not ready to say before the report is published.