David Farrar: Where did the Government get the law right and wrong with the Covid-19 response?

For those who are interested in public law, a very interesting paper by Dean Knight summarising the various court cases over the Covid-19 response. It details in which areas the Government won judicial reviews, and in which areas they lost. The TLDR version is:

• Nationwide lockdown – legal
• Statements by Ministers to stay home before health order was made – illegal
• Refusal to allow applicants out of MIQ on compassionate grounds – illegal
• gathering limits for churches – legal
• MIQ – overall system ruled legal, but method of allocation ruled illegal
• Refusal to allow self-isolation – illegal
• Suspension of residency applications – illegal
• Suspension of temporary visas for partners – legal
• Approval of vaccine – interim order not granted but may have been found illegal so law changed to clarify (relates to process not substance)
• Approval of paediatric vaccine – legal
• Refusal to share vaccination data with Maori organisations – illegal
• Vaccine mandates – most legal, but not Police, Defence Force and family carers

Hopefully we will not go through another pandemic anytime soon.

David Farrar runs Curia Market Research, a specialist opinion polling and research agency, and the popular Kiwiblog where this article was sourced. He previously worked in the Parliament for eight years, serving two National Party Prime Ministers and three Opposition Leaders.