1) Everyone lawfully in New Zealand has the right to freedom of movement and residence in New Zealand.
Section 18: NZ Bill of Rights
(2) Every New Zealand citizen has the right to enter New Zealand.
(3) Everyone has the right to leave New Zealand.
(4) No one who is not a New Zealand citizen and who is lawfully in New Zealand shall be required to leave New Zealand except under a decision taken on grounds prescribed by law.
This provision says everyone lawfully in New Zealand can move freely within New Zealand, to enter and leave the country, and to choose where to live.
Border closures and lockdown restrictions were put in place during the Covid pandemic because these measures were deemed necessary to protect public health.
Such restrictions must have a strong justification and be consistent with other rights, and the decisions made during the pandemic have been extensively reviewed and challenged by a number of legal cases.
For example, in the Grounded Kiwis Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) case, the High Court found that MIQ’s “virtual lobby” allocation method was an unjustifiable limit on the BORA right of New Zealand citizens to return to the country.1 The court agreed that MIQ was a crucial public health tool, but found the booking system placed unreasonable limits on our freedom of movement. Such cases are common. Our government should seek to rarely limit our rights because they are required to do all of the details correctly whenever our rights are limited.