The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

2 NEW ZEALAND
Was Alert Level 4 lockdown
legal? High Court says first
nine days not legal, but justified
SANDEEP SINGH
The High Court has settled the question
around the legality of Alert Level 4
complete lockdown by saying that the
first nine days did not have a legal basis under
Bill of Rights, though the move was completely
justified then as the government dealt with a
rapidly growing public health pandemic.
The Court was delving into the Borrowdale
v Director-General of Health and the Attorney-
General case that sought to challenge the
government’s decision to ask people stay at
home on the basis of no legal basis in the Bill
of Rights.
“The court did find that there was a breach
of the Bill of Rights Act in the first 9 days of
the Alert Level 4 lockdown because the original
oral request for people to stay home and in their
bubbles was not put in a formal order until 3
April,” Attorney General David Parker said.
Notably, the government had first issued
a directive on March 25 whereby closing
premises providing non-essential services and
prohibiting outdoor congregating in preparation
for going into Alert Level 4 complete lockdown
at 11.59 pm, Wednesday, March 26.
Despite being the most commonsensical
approach, the government decision was
contested by a Wellingtonian lawyer
Borrowdale for not having any legal basis for
ordering people to remain at home.
“While there is no question that the
requirement was a necessary, reasonable and
proportionate response to the Covid-19 crisis
at the time, the requirement was not prescribed
by law and was therefore contrary to s 5 of the
New Zealand Bill of Rights Act,” the threejudge
judgement said.
RIZWAN MOHAMMAD
Friday, August 21, 2020
The High Commission of India in New
Zealand hoisted the Indian tricolour flag
on Saturday, August 15, celebrating the
74th Indian Independence Day.
New Zealand being the first country to see
the sunrise geographically is also the first
country in the world to raise the Indian flag and
celebrate Independence Day.
Present at Bharat Bhawan in Wellington, the
High Commissioner of India Muktesh Pardeshi
along with his team and joined by community
members and leaders standing at two metres
apart from each other maintaining social
distancing unfurled the tricolour and sang the
national anthem.
Most of the community members gathered at
the flag hoisting ceremony in Wellington clad
in tricolour dresses in their effort to enhance the
limited yet joyous celebrations.
Post flag hoisting, High Commissioner
Muktesh Pardeshi and his wife Rakhi Pardeshi
honoured the bust of Mahatma Gandhi at the
Bharat Bhawan lobby, followed by a brief
program that included singing performances
and speeches for the community members
gathered at the occasion in the hall.
Earlier, several Indian Independence Day
celebrations were planned throughout New
Zealand, but most of them were withdrawn due
to Covid-19 Alert Level 2 and 3 restrictions.
High Commissioner of India, Muktesh
Pardeshi conveyed his wishes on occasion
The Indian Weekender
to the Kiwi Indian community via video
message through the Indian Weekender and
thanked them for their contributions during the
lockdowns earlier this year, and support for the
Vande Bharat Mission.
HEALTH MINISTER CHRIS HIPKINS RULES
OUT AUCKLAND MOVING TO ALERT LEVEL 4
RADIO NEW ZEALAND
The health minister says
alert level 3 restrictions in
Auckland are helping get to
the bottom of the cluster and the city
would not go into level 4.
Following the positive case of the
hotel maintenance worker, health
officials are being urged to use
serology testing which could reveal
if a person has had the disease even
if they haven›t had a positive Covid
test.
Health Minister Chris Hipkins
said serology tests were used but not
routinely.
He told Morning Report it had been
used for the Auckland cluster but
wasn’t sure if the test had been used
for the Rydges Hotel maintenance
worker.
“We use it where it can help us to
slot new pieces into the puzzle.”
He said the government didn’t yet
have a good understanding of how
the hotel maintenance worker caught
Covid-19.
“It remains a bit of a mystery.”
At this stage, he couldn’t rule
anything out - “surface transfer
certainly possible”, he said adding
that an investigation was still
ongoing.
So far tests of all coworkers, close
contacts, family and household have
returned negative results, Hipkins
said.
“That’s promising ... we got that
one early enough that it hasn’t been
passed on or if it has been passed
on, it won’t spread further because
we’ve isolated all the people that
person could have potentially passed
it on to.”
He said the workmates would be
tested again, but a decision on testing
the household members again was
yet to be made.
“We’ll be making sure there’s no
risk of any of those contacts passing
it on to someone else if they’ve
picked that up.”
He said everyone at the facility
was being tested, and if there was a
spread, it would have almost certainly
showed up in testing results.
“This is the system as it should
operate.”
Hipkins ruled out Auckland
moving to alert level 4.
That’s because there was no spread
at the Rydges Hotel, and though
there was an unidentified spread of
"That’s
promising ... we
got that one early
enough that it
hasn’t been passed
on or if it has
been passed on,
it won’t spread
further because
we’ve isolated all
the people that
person could have
potentially passed it
on to
the ‘Auckland August cluster’, the
government was trying to get ahead
of it.
Indian High Commission
celebrates Independence Day
in Wellington in Alert Level 2
He said level 3 restrictions were
helping get to the bottom of the
cluster.
However, National Party leader
Judith Collins would not say if
Auckland should stay in level 3 or
not.
Covid-19 border controls were
front and centre yesterday in the
first sitting of Parliament since the
postponement of the election.
Collins told Morning Report not
testing all border staff was «a
massive failure» for the government.
“I’m not going to blame [Director-
General of Health] Dr [Ashley]
Bloomfield.”
Collins said Prime Minister Jacinda
Ardern should take responsibility,
first for letting David Clark stay on as
health minister for three months, and
then appointing Chris Hipkins - who
already holds several portfolios - as
the new minister.
“The buck stops at the top and it
stops with her. She’s responsible, she
needs to explain it.
“You don’t as prime minister put
out a press release on 23 June saying
we’re testing frontline staff at the
border and then find out eight weeks
later ... the public finds out that was
not true.”
Collins said there should be
mandatory testing for border staff.
“Once every two weeks is better.”
She said National health
spokesperson Shane Reti had advised
her that about 30 percent of tests
could return false negative results,
which is why she said frequent
testing was necessary.
“It’s not just about testing, it’s also
about contact tracing.”
She said the government’s NZ
Covid Tracer was not working
competently and only 6 percent of
the population was currently using it.
“We will be putting out our policy
in relation to this,” she said.
By 1pm yesterday afternoon,
Bloomfield said nearly 1.5 million
people, or 37 percent of the
population, had downloaded the app.
Collins said people risked losing
their jobs after a “total and systemic
failure at the border”.
“What I believe is that when
Covid-19 comes in through the
border that we have to have a system
in place that immediately can find
out where this has gone.”