Since the beginning of the Pandemic, New Zealand has been under an Epidemic Notice as a response to the Covid-19 Pandemic. The first of these was introduced in March 2020 and was issued on the basis of advice received from the Director General of Health. The Epidemic Notice has since expired on the 20th of October 2022 – so what has changed?
What is an Epidemic Notice?
This is a public policy tool that was used to help government agencies to respond swiftly and effectively during the pandemic due to the rapidly evolving situation. The Epidemic Notice also enabled government agencies to use the rarely used “special powers” to ensure that any changes to our daily life can be in legislation to enable daily life to continue in a somewhat normal fashion. Since the initial Epidemic Notice was issued, these have been renewed consistently every three months by the government.
When renewing the Epidemic Notice, the Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern had to be satisfied that the effects of the Covid-19 pandemic would be likely to continue to disrupt essential government and business activity throughout New Zealand significantly.
What Next?
It is only logical to draw the conclusion that since the Epidemic Notice has expired, the government no longer believes that a Covid-19 outbreak will disrupt essential government and business activity throughout the country. This signifies a significant milestone as it indicates that extraordinary powers are no longer needed. It also signals a move by the government towards any arrangement for long-term management of the Pandemic.
This also means that if any extraordinary measures need to be taken, new legislation would need to be passed to enable those to take place. It also means in the highly unlikely event that this ever happens again, New Zealand already has a good footing and we will not have to start from scratch.
However, there are a number of effects that this has on the legal sector. A number of legislative processes were enabled through the Epidemic Notice. The first implication that this has on the legal system is that the electronic filing of documents is no longer permitted. The main effect that will affect us here at Collins and May is that an Enduring Power of Attorney is no longer able to be signed and witnessed remotely. This means that all future documents needing to be signed for Enduring Powers of Attorney, will have to be done in person. The Courts have advised that they make no plans to change this in the future.
There are a number of emergency provisions throughout the Court process that have also been repealed since the notice has expired, audio-only links will not be allowed in civil and criminal proceedings and documents can no longer be witnessed remotely.
If you feel any of these changes will affect you, please do not hesitate to get in contact.
