High Court ruling on fairness to influence any new MIQ policy
New Zealand’s strict managed isolation and quarantine system – which impeded swathes of citizens and residents from coming home as the virus raged overseas – could be reestablished if the border was closed, but policy on how it would manage emergency spots is yet to be developed, Covid19 Response Minister Ayesha Verrall says.
Verrall appeared in front of the health select committee yesterday to speak about the renewal of the Covid-19 Public Health Response Act, which gives the legal framework to impose pandemic restrictions until May 2023.
However, a resurrection of one of its most controversial tools – the managed isolation and quarantine system – would be based on ‘‘different policy’’, Verrall said, after Grounded Kiwis, a group representing New Zealanders affected by MIQ, won their High Court challenge to the fairness of the system in April.
Justice Jill Mallon said the now-dismantled MIQ system did not take enough account of personal circumstances for individuals to be given priority as needed, and that grounds for emergency allocations were too strictly set.
Verrall said the finding was ‘‘a message to the Government, should MIQ ever be required again, which of course we hope that it is not . . . it would have to be a different policy but . . . the policy has not yet been developed’’.
The Government was keeping a close eye on the ongoing outbreak. There were 21,595 cases in the past week, Verrall said, however this was potentially slowing.
It has already trimmed down its Covid powers, scrapping the most restrictive tools with which it sought to control the virus’ spread such as vaccine mandates, gathering limits and lockdowns, as well as the managed isolation and quarantine system in October.
A new ‘readiness plan’, released by the Ministry of Business and Innovation last week and dated August, said there was a minimum of 1500 rooms in Auckland and Christchurch which could be used for MIQ in the event of a border closure. However, the report said policy on emergency allocations would need to be developed prior to any Cabinet decision to close the border.
Phil Knipe, chief legal adviser at the Ministry of Health, said the findings from the High Court decision would be included in the new policy. Claims for compensation were being ‘‘progressed individually’’, he said.
‘‘Should MIQ ever be required again . . . it would have to be a different policy but . . . the policy has not yet been developed.’’
Dr Ayesha Verrall Minister for Covid-19 Response