Minister Hipkins and MIQ boss respond
Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has confirmed he is aware of Charlotte Bellis’ MIQ battle — and says he was provided information from a National MP that showed her initial unsuccessful first application warranted “further explanation”.
Hipkins told the Weekend Herald that he had been contacted by a “senior National Party MP” on Wednesday with “information about this case and the circumstances about their declined application”.
He added that on reviewing the information it “appeared at first sight to warrant further explanation”.
“My office passed this information on to officials to check whether the proper process was followed,” Hipkins said. “I’m unable to provide any further comment on MIQ at this stage as a court case against MIQ is being prepared and expected to be heard soon.”
Speaking specifically on Bellis’ bid to gain MIQ ahead of the arrival of her baby, Head of MIQ Chris Bunny told the Weekend Herald that the journalist applied for an emergency voucher on January 24.
Bunny said the date she requested of February 27 was not within the 14-day window required for an emergency allocation.
“She received a response deactivating the application and inviting her to reapply within the
14-day window, and to contact MIQ if she intended to change her flights to return to New Zealand earlier,” Bunny said.
“We have not received any subsequent confirmation that Ms Bellis intends to bring her flights forward.”
Bunny added there was a “team of people” who managed emergency allocation requests “and the team keep a close eye on applications, and Charlotte’s location of Afghanistan came to their attention”.
“Thirty minutes after the initial decline email, they reached out to inform her that if she intended to change her flights to an earlier return date, that more supporting information would be required to process a subsequent application and they highlighted the evidence requirements,” Bunny said.
“This is not uncommon and is an example of the team being helpful to New Zealanders who are in distressing situations.”
Bunny said pregnancy was “not considered an emergency under the emergency allocation criteria”, but added “certain conditions during pregnancy may mean that the high bar for an emergency is met”.
Bunny said between October
30, 2020, and January 23, 2002, MIQ had processed 8863 completed applications and approved 5396 applications for emergency allocations.