A boy plays an Xbox game at Paris Games Week in Paris on Friday, November 3, 2017.

Public hearings in the Covid-19 Royal Commission have been abandoned after key witnesses, including Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, former Finance Minister Grant Robertson, refused to appear.

Former Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern is standing by her decision to skip a public hearing for the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Covid-19 Pandemic. Political reporter Anneke Smith has more.