Coronavirus: New Zealand’s Covid-19 border rules, quarantine lottery were unlawful, court rules
- New Zealand’s managed isolation and quarantine process stripped citizens of their right to return home, the High Court in Wellington ruled on Wednesday
- Its failure to take into account people’s specific needs meant the government had acted ‘unlawfully, unreasonably and in breach of the Bill of Rights’
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In a 140-page written decision, Justice Jillian Mallon said the managed isolation and quarantine process did not allow personal circumstances to be sufficiently considered and prioritised.
Mallon found that the system itself was a critical component of the country’s coronavirus elimination strategy. But she said its failure to take into account people’s specific needs meant the government had acted “unlawfully, unreasonably and in breach of the Bill of Rights that states every New Zealand citizen has the right to enter New Zealand”.
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The challenge to the High Court in Wellington was brought in February by the “Grounded Kiwis”, an advocacy group that had lobbied for the restrictions to ease.
It argued New Zealanders offshore had been stripped of their rights and some had become traumatised by failed attempts to return home.
Its challenge focused on the restrictions in place over the period from September 1 to December 17 last year.
Demand for places in the country’s limited isolation and quarantine hotel rooms significantly outstripped supply during that period, meaning thousands missed out on places in the lottery-based booking system.
Passport numbers were entered into “virtual lobbies”, with only a small percentage granted a room if successful.
Examples highlighted during a judicial review included a woman who was left stranded overseas, unable to return home to bury her only son when he died from a medical event.
The isolation and quarantine requirement was scrapped for all returning New Zealand citizens in mid-March.
Crown lawyer Aedeen Boadita-Cormican defended the system in court and said it was created as a protection that was fair to all New Zealanders at home and abroad under extreme circumstances.
Opposition lawmaker Chris Bishop said the government’s Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) system had inflicted enormous suffering.
“We now have judicial confirmation of state-sponsored cruelty that was the MIQ lottery,” he said.
“Pregnant women like journalist Charlotte Bellis were denied MIQ vouchers to enter New Zealand,” Bishop said. “People couldn’t return to be with loved ones in the final stages of their lives.”
But Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins said the court had confirmed that the MIQ system was lawful and justified. He said he acknowledged the court found that the rights of some citizens may have been breached by the lottery-type system for beds.
“We have long acknowledged the difficult trade-offs we’ve had to make in our Covid-19 response to save lives and the effects of those decisions on all New Zealanders, particularly those living abroad,” Hipkins said.
Additional reporting by Associated Press
