Ombudsman says MIQ was a lottery

Newshub reports:

The Chief Ombudsman says the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment acted “unreasonably” in its advice to ministers over the managed isolation and quarantine (MIQ) voucher allocation system.

“We ended up with a lottery – a system that did not fully allow for the consideration and prioritisation of individual circumstances of people trying to come home during the COVID-19 pandemic,” Peter Boshier said on Monday.

This is not news to most people, but useful to have it confirmed by the Chief Ombudsman.

“Key decisions about the allocation system were made by government ministers and I do not have jurisdiction under the Ombudsmen Act to recommend they apologise,” Boshier said. 

This is polite speak for I can’t tell Ministers to apologise, but they should!