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.