The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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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.”
The Indian Weekender Friday, August 21, 2020 NEW ZEALAND 3 NO OFFICIAL TALKS YET BETWEEN NZ AND INDIA ON THE POSSIBILITY OF AIR TRAVEL BUBBLE BETWEEN THE TWO COUNTRIES SANDEEP SINGH Laying rest to a lot of speculations dominating the social media in the last couple of days the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade had confirmed that there were yet no talks between the two countries on a possible air travel bubble. The Indian Weekender has approached the office of the MFAT for a comment following a tweet by India’s Civil Aviation Minister Hardeep Puri on Wednesday, August 19, which said that India was in talks with 13 countries for expanding their global air travel arrangements, which included New Zealand. Mr Suri had tweeted. “We continue to further strengthen the reach and the scope of Vande Bharat Mission. Air Travel arrangements are already in place with the USA, UK, France, Germany, UAE, Qatar & Maldives. “We are now taking these efforts forward & are negotiating with 13 more countries to establish such arrangements.” Responding to the Indian Weekender’s enquiry, an official spokesperson of the MFAT said, “New Zealand has been working closely with India since the outbreak of COVID-19 to support repatriation flights in both directions. "We are aware of a recent Indian Government announcement about establishing air bubbles with a range of countries, including possibly with New Zealand. "There have not been any discussions to date on the possibility of an air bubble with India,» the spokesperson said. "We are now taking these efforts forward & are negotiating with 13 more countries to establish such arrangements This news will expectedly shatter hopes for a large number of people who are currently stranded in both countries amidst global travel restrictions and limited travel opportunities and are keen to travel between the two countries. India has been working aggressively in expanding air travel arrangements along with operationalizing the world’s biggest repatriation mission - Vande Bharat Mission. New Zealand, on the other hand, had been following one of the world’s stringent elimination strategies for managing Covid-19 health pandemic and progressing very carefully in forming any air travel bubbles, including a Trans-Tasman bubble. However, the fact that the two governments (New Zealand and India) continues to engage closely, including on facilitating maximum possible travel of stranded people between the two countries augurs well for any talks at the official level for any possible future air travel bubble between the two countries. New election date announced SANDEEP SINGH Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has announced new election date on October 17, giving political parties a tentative nine-week times after Auckland moves out of Alert Level 3. The dissolution of Parliament will now take place on 6 September and 3 October is when advanced voting will begin. “The Electoral Commission, via the Ministry of Justice, has advised me that a safe and accessible election is achievable on this date. This short delay gives the Commission more time to prepare including freeing up facilities for early voting during school holidays,” Jacinda Ardern said. “Moving the date by four weeks also gives all parties a fair shot to campaign and delivers New Zealanders certainty without unnecessarily long delays. “With the re-emergence of Covid-19 in our community these are not ordinary times and so while the decision as to the election date sits with me, I spoke with all party leaders to seek their views. No future change in election date Prime Minister has ruled out any future change one election date regardless of any potential Covid-19 related situation. “Covid will be with us for some time to come. Continuously pushing out an election does not lessen the risk of disruption and this is why the Electoral Commission has planned for the possibility of holding an election where the country is at Level 2, and with some parts at Level 3. “I will not change the election date again,” Ardern said.
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The Indian Weekender, Friday 21 August 2020

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