Another Govt legal stuff up

The Herald reports:

The Health Minister is making an urgent law change after a High Court judgment ruled it was “reasonably arguable” the Government’s provisional approval of the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine is “problematic”.

The case – Nga Kaitiaki Tuku Ihu Medical Action Society Incorporated v The Minister of Health – was in the High Court at Wellington last week.

In a decision released today, Judge Rebecca Ellis said: “it is reasonably arguable that the decision to provisionally approve the vaccine for much wider use is problematic” and went beyond the powers of section 23 of the Medicines Act.

The Government had has months and months to plan for the vaccine. And part of that should have been checking the legality. If they had identified some uncertainity over legal authority, then it would have been easy to bring a bill to Parliament which could be considered quickly but with good scrutiny.

Now what we have is urgent legislation to be passed which will probably have minimal scrutiny by MPs or the public.