Has the Government followed its own ethical advice?

A reader has alerted me to this document called Ethical Values for a Pandemic, published in 2007 by the National Ethics Advisory Committee. They refer to the Siracusa Principles of international law about which human rights may be restricted in the interests of public health. Two key principles:

• Only as a last resort can human rights be interfered with to achieve a public health goal
• When restrictive measures are required, the least restrictive measures possible should be used

Now consider that we have 10 cases a day of Covid-19 at the border and over 2,000 in the community yet the Government still prevents New Zealand citizens from accessing their fundamental human right of returning home.

It is clear that the Government has ignored the advice of its own Ethics Advisory Committee.