The future of the New Zealand Bill of Rights is on the line for all New Zealanders on Wednesday. Thank you for all your support. We'll give you an update on how we feel the case went. The Court may take a week or even months to make a decision. We are cautiously optimistic that it will rule in our favour for the benefit of all New Zealanders. It is still not too late to rally support. We will keep this page running past the hearing date.
Last year Justice Cooke essentially ruled the vaccine mandates in the health and education sector were a justifiable breach of the human rights for workers in those sectors. Our position is he erred in law on at least four grounds and we get to present those grounds to the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.
NZTSOS is represented by Matthew Hague from Frontline Law.
"It's important that the ruling of Justice Cooke is overturned. Otherwise the legal precedent is set in place allowing future governments to enforce medical treatment on whole sections of the population on the so-called advice of medical experts."
The appeal will be heard before three judges, the Honourable Justices Gilbert, Collins and Goddard.
"Justice Cooke heard our case in the earlier judicial review. Like all of us, he is human. He got it wrong. The vaccine mandates were not "a demonstrably justified breach of human rights. " That's why in a free and democratic country we have the opportunity to go to the Court of Appeal to correct this mistake."
Lawyers Jones and Kiel representing the Minister for Covid-19 Response and Others will respond to the arguments of NZTSOS.
"Courts are reluctant to rule against the government when governments declare emergency powers. But this is exactly why we need them. Otherwise we have a situation of unbridled power without accountability. The nature of this hearing means we can't introduce new evidence to the courtroom but the evidence emerging shows that the breach of section 11 of the Bill of Rights, "the right to refuse medical treatment" was not demonstrably justified and this must be corrected and those government officials who overstepped need to be held to account."
