Covid-19: Govt still not certain how use of vaccine passes will be enforced

Wednesday, 17 November 2021

The Government is yet to decide how use of vaccine passes will be enforced and what the penalties for non-compliance could be, despite the system already rolling out.

The Ministry of Health launched its long-awaited My Vaccine Pass on Wednesday, allowing people to download or print out proof they are fully vaccinated against Covid-19.

Under the Covid protection framework traffic light system the Government is keen to move the country to soon, the passes will be needed to attend large festivals and any other venue that chooses to require them.

Vaccine passes were introduced in New Zealand on Wednesday, and will soon be instrumental in the way many of us live our lives.

Venues that choose to require them will be able to operate more freely, even when there is Covid-19 in the community.

Just over half of workers surveyed said their employer did not prioritise their career development, and business coach Shane Green says that is a problem in a tight labour market when companies are trying to attract and hang on to staff.

* Businesses that do not implement vaccine certificates will 'not operate as normal'

* 'Either yes or no': Hospitality operators urge certainty on Covid vaccination certificates

Wednesday’s roll-out was met with frustration from the hospitality sector, with operators left with “more questions than answers”, the head of the Restaurant Association said.

“We had someone from the ministry explain the technology to our members just yesterday, but we don’t have any information on the policies that sit behind the system,” association chief executive Marisa Bidois said.

”We want our members to be set up and ready to go when they are able to reopen, but we have a list of 100 questions on how the traffic light system and vaccine passes will work for us as verifiers.”

Restaurant Association chief executive Marisa Bidois said it was only a matter of time before it became cheaper to grab a takeaway than to make the same meal at home.

A key question was whether businesses would be required to have someone on the door verifying that each customer’s vaccine pass matched an approved form of identification.

While Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had said the hospitality sector was familiar with checking age-related identification, that was not true of all businesses, Bidois said.

“If you’re an unlicensed cafe or restaurant, you’re not used to that at all and some of our members are worried about managing customers at the door.

In November, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern announced Aucklanders would be free to leave the city from December 15 if they were vaccinated or had a negative test.

“These places are in the business of welcoming people, and it’s going to be a real mindset shift for a lot of them.”

Businesses also had concerns about enforcement practicalities, communication challenges with customers, and handling customers disregarding the vaccine passes.

The association had sought clarity from the ministry, but the information was not forthcoming and many of its members were still against the idea of a vaccine pass, Bidois said.

“Our latest data shows opposition is still sitting around 30 per cent and some people are saying they won’t use the system.”

Stuff put questions to the office of Covid-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins about the monitoring and enforcement of vaccine pass use, and the implications for businesses which failed to use the system correctly.

In a statement, a spokesman for the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet’s Covid-19 Group said decisions about compliance and enforcement were still being considered by ministers.

That included the extent of obligations and any penalties.

“As the prime minister announced today, the Government will be releasing detailed individual sector guidance for the new traffic light system soon. This is detail that has been worked through over the course of many weeks, in consultation with different sectors, and is now being finalised,” he said.

Detailed guidance for businesses and the events sector would be available on the Unite Against Covid-19 website when finalised.

Requiring a vaccination certificate would be optional for many locations, and would only be in some higher-risk settings at the traffic light system’s red and orange levels where they would be a requirement in order to open to the public, he said.

“However, if a business, organisation or service does not wish to request proof of vaccination, they will have to operate with strict limits on capacity and space requirements.”

Under the traffic light system, a pass will be required as proof of vaccination status in a range of public settings such as events, hospitality, retail (which is an opt-in arrangement), community, sport, and faith-based gatherings.

Proof of vaccination status will not be required to access supermarkets, pharmacies, all health and disability services, foodbanks or petrol stations.

Proof of vaccination is also not required in education settings, on all public transport (other than air travel), accessing housing and housing support services under state sector agencies.