Covid snitches & fines

Were infringements in New Zealand proportionate to the public health risk?

While New Zealand didn’t reach the height of Australia’s fondness for fines - NSW fined almost 3,000 children over $2 million for Covid restriction breaches - we still had Covid related arrests and fines, and a focus on people reporting others for breaches.

In 2020, infringements were primarily designed to discourage activities at Alert Level 4 and 3 which were basically lockdowns. For instance if you went outside of a small area around your home’s location in a lock down - you could get an infringement. Go fishing or swimming or surfing or hiking? That was also worthy of an infringement (or being demoted if you were a Minister).

The rationale for banning all outdoor activities at those Alert Levels wasn’t due to limiting the spread of Covid per se - it was that people could be injured and require emergency support help. Caught doing these activities risked a $300 infringement, up to a maximum of $1,000.

Police set up a specific unit “…to achieve compliance to prevent the spread of Covid-19 while maintaining trust and confidence.”

The compliance center appeared to have varied between 10 to 150 staff at its height. Police had a 5 stage approach to breaches: engage, educate, encourage, warn and finally enforcement. Police also transferred tasks to other government agencies, however their situation reports note (I’ll imagine it as dourly…) that too often other agencies didn’t pick up assigned tasks that fell under their remit.

Reporting breaches

In the first lockdown of 2020, the Police emergency number 111 got over 2,000 calls reporting people for breaches in public spaces. The influx led to a reporting form. The Unite Against Covid website still has a link to this dedicated form to report breaches to Police and a non-emergency number 105 to reach Police. Between the form’s launch in April 2020 to January 2022 a staggering 57,371 Covid breach reports had been made.

People reported others for jet boating, playing golf, going to a vacation home, partying and later on in 2022, telling on unvaccinated festival goers. Reporting people included public shaming and being fired for an alleged boundary breach, as well as being wrongfully accused for crossing a lockdown boundary in place.

After the entire country went into another lockdown in August 2021, Police issued 328 infringement notices, including 15 for not wearing a mask, and were doing regular patrolling for breaches. The Unite Against Covid website form had 5,848 breaches reported during just that time. Police also received 1,212 calls on Covid breaches.

As Alert Levels slowly dropped, in October 2021, an Auckland party was reported directly to Police for breaching gathering limits. It attracted 6 infringement notices and the arrest of the 28 year old organiser. The media went so far as to identify the semi-rural house, featured hand-wringing apologies from party goers and quoted the landlord as “shocked and saddened” and “…it really hurts, that’s where I brought up my family…”

Breach reporting and infringements were included in the Department of Prime Minster and Cabinet (DPMC) daily situation reports during lockdowns as well as reviews of Alert Levels.

Infringements hiked up

In November 2021, infringement fines were raised to be more of a deterrent to breaches, particularly the strict boundary controls in place around that drawn out lockdown in Auckland. For individuals it raised the penalty for failing to comply with a Covid restriction from $300 to $4,000. This could max out at $12,000 as a court imposed fine - again, up from that $1,000 originally. Examples of infringement offences include failure to wear a face covering in places where mandatory, or failure to socially distance. Business breaches also had increases - if a business didn’t display a QR code for app scanning - they could now be fined $12,000. A November 2021 briefing to then Covid-19 Minister Chris Hipkins shows how infringements were used and the limits to Police powers as a deterrent.

An opinion piece from a member of the Auckland District Law Society pointed out the difference in a speeding infringement ($630) versus the $4,000 for breaching a Covid order by going to a beach and swimming during a lockdown. I like this lawyer as he pointed out the fact masks initially weren’t recommended - then became mandated with a $4,000 compliance tag!

Who did infringements affect?

If data from the Covid-19 breach form is available, I haven’t conclusively found it. But there are some clues as to who breaches affected.

Research commissioned by DPMC was used to drive messaging as part of the Unite Against Covid campaign. The Research Agency (TRA) found those under 35 were the hardest to reach to get them to comply as they were less community minded and naturally rebellious - they found a third thought it was “okay to bend the rules from time to time”.

More clues come out of a group called Behavioral Science Aotearoa. Operating out of the Ministry of Justice at the time, they spent months compiling research in 2020 that may have fed into policy and nudge messaging. Some of which found young men were the least likely to comply with Covid restrictions:

And what ended up happening - Police statistics on prosecutions showed 75% of all Covid prosecutions were men and overall the 20 to 30 age group made up 40% of the total as well. Furthermore, by early 2021 Māori were making up more than half of all infringements issued.

I think it bears remembering, 1 of the government’s preferred Covid experts Siouxsie Wiles was pleading directly to the Prime Minister and the then Director-General of Health Ashley Bloomfield that they were not at fault when video evidence was released showing they breached Covid restrictions during the drawn out lockdown in Auckland:

They agreed with her and she did not get an infringement.

Worksafe breaches

Worksafe investigated Covid breaches at businesses which could also be reported through the dedicated form. By April 2022 over 6,500 possible breaches had been reported.

At the height of red as part of the traffic light setting that was in place in early 2022, domestic vaccine passes were required and workplace mandates were in full force. An Auckland restaurant was fined $24,000 for allowing unvaccinated staff to work, a Christchurch restaurant $20,000 and a gym with an unrepentant owner made headlines after being fined $12,000 for not checking people’s vaccine passes.

And by July 2022 WorkSafe had issued 70 fines to businesses for Covid breaches totalling $442,900. Also er, at that time, 1 fine out of the 70 had been collected.

For $300.

An infringement notice comes with 28 days to pay (or protest it) and then subject to reminder notices it gets transferred to the Ministry of Justice for collection actions and it becomes a fine.

By October 2022 for all infringements lodged with the court (which is not just Worksafe - but individuals too) well you know what - I’ll let this Ministry of Justice OIA speak for itself:

I do not know what the final outcome of these fines and infringements were.

Infringements move down from their height

Later in 2022, with the end of various elements of legislation that allowed for lockdowns and the removal of associated mandate requirements I assume, infringement fines were lowered. The minimum Covid infringement for an individual was lowered from $4,000 to $1,000. Still quite a lot more than the original $300 and the lawyer’s example of a speeding infringement.

Heading into mid-2023 we still have infringements for Covid breaches in place. It looks like failure to wear a required mask in a health care setting is technically a medium risk offence that comes with the $1,000 price tag!

Is that really proportionate to the public health risk?