New Health New Zealand vs Director-General of Health

New Health New Zealand have taken legal action against the Director General of Health claiming the Directives sent to councils to demand they start fluoridation were illegal.  No date has yet been set but it is likely the substantive case will be heard later in 2024.

In November 2023 the court heard a point of clarification which is separate from the substantive case. The judge found that the directives were unlawful as the Director-General did not give consideration to the Bill of Rights. However,  the directives have not been cancelled. See below for more information.

Court Documents

February 2024 Court Ruling – Directives still stand even though unlawful. 

November 2023 Court Ruling – Directives found to be unlawful

High Court Decision on Directives

On Friday 16 February 2024, the High Court issued its ruling on what would be the outcome of the fluoridation directives being unlawful.

 

 

The judge reiterated that “a decision maker must, as a part of its decision-making process, address the restriction and consider whether it is demonstrably justified under s 5 of the Act, quite apart from a substantive assessment by the Court of whether any restriction is so justified.”


In other words, Bloomfield, being Director General of Health who ordered the directives, should have provided an explanation as to why our fundamental right to informed consent to medical treatment (as articulated in section 11 of the NZ Bill of Rights) could be overridden. 

 

 

Unfortunately, he did not rule that the directives needed to be cancelled or suspended, so at this stage, the directives still stand.

 

 

In our view this makes no sense. Since the directives did not follow a lawful process, how can it be a legal requirement to adhere to those directives?

 

 

However, the case is not over. The substantive case is still to be heard. 
We believe this will happen later this year and will more likely take a number of days to be heard. All aspects of fluoridation will then be argued.

 

 

We believe we all need to continue to push back on the directives and to put pressure on currently fluoridating councils to inform their residents that they are being forcibly medicated through their water supply and what that means for their health.