The Aotearoa New Zealand Experience

Published: August 2024

This report explores the response to the Covid-19 pandemic in Aotearoa New Zea­land, with a focus on its balancing of rights and general protection of civic freedoms, in relation to the wide range of pub­lic health measures that were deployed, from significant lock­downs to border quarantine and vaccination requirements.

These public health measures, including some with signif­icant impact on people’s lives and freedoms, were imple­mented through executive-made orders, mandated briefly by long-standing infectious disease powers and a bespoke Covid-19 Act with broad executive power. However, central to the legal framework and government’s response was the expectation that all public health measures would be con­sistent with the Bill of Rights Act; in other words, any limits imposed on people’s rights and freedoms needed to be pre­scribed by law and demonstrably justified in a free and demo­cratic society.

A complex system of accountability processes sought to protect fundamental rights. The appraisal of mea­sures for rights consistency focused especially on generous framing of implicated rights, careful definition of public health objectives and assessment of whether the means employed to achieve those objectives limited rights no more than reasonably necessary. Accountability processes insisted the government explain its response and justify limits imposed on people’s rights and freedoms; judicial scrutiny continued, allowing the courts to call out and invalidate measures they considered unjustifiably breached rights and freedoms. Dem­ocratic processes and civic activity continued too, despite the public health measures, sometimes modified to take account of heightened precautions.

Overall, Aotearoa New Zealand was able to deliver an effective public health response, with comparative successful outcomes, while generally maintaining and respecting human rights and civic freedoms. For more, see the full report here.

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