Tom Phillips was shot and killed during a confrontation with Police when an officer was also critically wounded. One of his children was taken at the scene but two remained missing.
New Zealand Herald photograph by Mike Scott
Tom Phillips was shot and killed during a confrontation with Police when an officer was also critically wounded. One of his children was taken at the scene but two remained missing.
New Zealand Herald photograph by Mike Scott
A retired High Court judge running the inquiry into the disappearance of Tom Phillips’ children is receiving up to $1680 a day, up to four days a week.
Documents show advisers also warned if the probe were to include the Family Court, it would quickly become “unwieldy”.
The almost four-yearmanhunt for Phillips and his children ended in September when police fatally shot the Marokopa fugitive on a rural Waikato road, and the children were found at a remote campsite.
In late November, Attorney-General Judith Collins announced a public inquiry into whether government agencies took all practicable steps to protect the children’s safety and welfare.
Collins has said the fee is consistent with past rates for public inquiries.
A letter from Collins to inquiry lead Justice Simon Moore outlines how he will receive the $1,680 “daily fee” for an eight-hour day, and that he’s expected to work up to four days a week, but it’s noted “it may be less than this at times”.
Fees are payable for actual hours worked, with the exception that there will not be any payment above the daily rate, if more than eight hours are required in one day.
This equates to the hourly rate being $210.
The documents show a request for funding was made urgently, and had to come from a contingency fund established as part of Budget 2025.
Documents also confirmed the scope of the inquiry “extends back to when the children first became involved with the Family Court, in 2018, rather than in 2021 when they first disappeared”.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon wrote to Collins on November 5, formally assigning her as the appropriate Minister in charge of the inquiry.
Talking points from a November 24 meeting, days before the inquiry was announced, noted the importance of having the Family Court out of scope of the inquiry as “that would quickly become unwieldy”.
It detailed how including the court would risk undermining judicial independence.
Suppression orders were also discussed, where it was noted it was “impossible to predict the timing and outcome of that challenge to the orders, and any High Court decision may be appealed”, and this created “significant uncertainty” around some aspects of the inquiry.
The documents proposed the Attorney-General be authorised with the ability to amend the terms of reference, “to mitigate any delays or costs that could arise due to the current suppression orders related to the children”.
They also outlined how the inquiry’s start date was complicated by existing suppression orders around the children.
“Those orders will almost certainly need to be varied to enable the inquiry to proceed, and when and how a variation can be achieved is uncertain,” the document said.
Talking points affirm why the Family Court is being left out of the inquiry.
A draft Cabinet paper on the matter said officials consulted with the Ministry of Justice, police, Oranga Tamariki, the Parliamentary Counsel Office, the Public Service Commission, the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, and the Treasury.
Media organisations have been granted a judicial review of reporting restrictions made in the Family Court.
The inquiry’s final report will be delivered by July 21.
Azaria Howell is a multimedia reporter working from Parliament’s press gallery. She joined NZME in 2022 and became a Newstalk ZB political reporter in late 2024, with a keen interest in public service agency reform and government spending.
