Rushed laws a "constitutional disgrace" - law prof

While the National Party was in the throes of its leadership crisis last Wednesday night, Parliament's Speaker had hours earlier taken the highly unusual step of lambasting the Labour government over the way it rushed through the far reaching traffic light system legislation, under urgency. The law that seriously curbs the freedom of unvaccinated people was rushed through in a 24-hour urgent session in order to be passed in time to take effect this week. The Speaker Trevor Mallard, himself a Labour MP, said the Government and the House had failed to fully scrutinise the bill. He made a specific ruling before the third reading debate started on the COVID-19 Response (Vaccinations) Legislation Bill yesterday, to lodge the criticism. One of a raft of critics of the way the legislation was rushed through is constitutional and public law lecturer Dean Knight, Associate Professor at Victoria University of Wellington School of Law. He tells Kathryn it is a 'constitutional disgrace.' She also speaks with litigator and public law specialist Andrew Butler.