Grounded Kiwis fight in the High Court ends in success
The Grounded Kiwis have succeeded in their historic case against the MIQ system.
Justice Jillian Mallon released her decision this afternoon and found that although MIQ was a critical component of the Government’s elimination strategy, the combination of the virtual lobby and narrow emergency criteria meant New Zealanders’ rights to enter their country was infringed.
“In some instances in a manner that was not demonstrably justified in a free and democratic society,” Justice Mallon said.
The decision, which spanned hundreds of pages, outlined the judge’s decision.
This is the second breathless news story in as many weeks claiming some smoking gun when there is none…
MIQ not justified beyond November, health officials told govt last year
Top health officials agreed in November last year that Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) was “no longer justified” for most returnees, according to a document the Ministry of Health tried to keep secret.
…look, the MIQ was a brutal but utterly necessary tool in keeping the Homeland safe. If any of us had been caught up in its gruelling requirements, it would be heart breaking, but this Government was running blind a lot of the time on this pandemic and were making best decisions based on the facts on the ground in an ever changing dynamic environment.
In the case of the latest ruling we have a system of checks and balances that is working!
None of us liked having the boot of the State on our throat, but we agreed to the suspension of civil liberties for the greater good and that greater good kept being legally challenged until it was found that the system – which has now been dismantled – didn’t justify the greater good threshold.
This ruling against the Government is proof of a system working!
It’s not evidence of a fully functioning Police State!
These regulations were hard on everyone, that the system was over cautious isn’t malice or spite.
This isn’t the great unravelling the Right are pretending it is.
The Government has nothing to apologise for, but an apology should be given because no one wanted to cause these Kiwis any more trauma than they had to endure, just like we didn’t mean for any Kiwi to suffer from mandatory vaccine testing or mandatory vaccinations in certain jobs.
We all bore crosses through this pandemic. We all deserve praise for our our endurance and condolences for the pain.
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Have we ever had an official explanation as to why some British DJs were able to enter NZ MIQ with ease on at least three times ?
Have we ever had an official explanation why Ricardo Menéndez March (MP) was able to queue jump and trot off to Mexico and bring back his boyfriend?
“Most transparent government ever”
I agreed that MIQ was poorly run but agree with it being used to stop NZ suffering much higher death rates before vaccination here.
What made it unfair is that many people who were not NZ citizens seemed to be able to enter instead of NZ citizens, they kept the 501’s, criminals coming and ISIS bride family and we had MP’s leaving for holidays, conferences and other events that took up the places.
People did not seem to have to prepay the MIQ like they did for their travel and then didn’t pay and this was allowed while NZ citizens like students are crippled with student debt that they don’t seem to be let off when they leave the border.
“Most transparent government ever”
No, that would be the one that provided citizenship to its mates in the high finance game.
Revealed: How Peter Thiel got New Zealand citizenship:
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/business/revealed-how-peter-thiel-got-new-zealand-citizenship/UO6WOVE5D26PAXXCDRTMUPQEW4/
Ambassadors, politicians, sports jocks and pseudo celebrities were exempt from the pop up prisons.
And they should not have been!
Practise.
RosieLee: yes indeed. I noticed that as well. This is still NZ: the verb is spelled “practise”, while the noun is “practice”.
Old English teachers never die, they just have a lifetime supply of red pens!
It brings to mind my late mother calling out from the kitchen “as….as that”, whenever she heard any of us say “it wasn’t all that….”. She also was an English teacher, still working then. I think she felt that she was fighting a losing battle over that expression, though.
A sibling who was also an English teacher remarked some years back that teachers believed that they’d lost the battle for the apostrophe. I still use it, correctly, as it happens. Ditto the comma. Shows my age, I guess.
MIQ did have its place, it was a blunt tool used to protect the majority particularly the vulnerable. Many NZers were told by Winstone to get home ASAP but many didn’t listen they even went to Australia when they were warned to do so at their own risks. Then we had to hear all the bitching and moaning and frankly I think many NZers got sick of this lot.
yes!
If you can afford to travel overseas you can’t have too many problems – poor wee flowers.
Some folk wouldn’t know what a real problem is if it slapped them in the face.
Several millions of NZers were never going to use MIQ. People who thought it their right to roam the globe as they pleased regardless of a pandemic, remain not universally supported or admired.
MIQ was a badly-designed, badly-administered, poorly-implemented farce.
Those responsible should hang their heads in shame at the breathtaking sweep of their ineptitude.
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