In the 1980s a series of high-profile incidents involving mentally ill people, including a violent attack and a number of suicides, prompted the government to set up a committee of inquiry, headed by Judge Ken Mason, into certain mental health services. This was the first of three inquiries he chaired in this field. The 1988 Mason Report provoked further controversy. A legal injunction delayed its release. A second injunction required some words to be deleted from the printed version. Here Gail Longmore (left) and Cathi Kernot are deleting the offending words from each copy of the report prior to its release.

Mason headed a more wide-ranging general inquiry into mental health services – New Zealand's fifth – in 1995-6.