Why the New Zealand public need the Pfizer contract and why it needs to form an integral part of the NZ Royal Commission COVID-19 lessons learned. Well, it's now at the Wellington High Court!

Wellington High Court Judicial Review for the NZ Pfizer Contract

Mar 15, 2025

Let’s start off with some context of our journey chasing down this contract. We, along with many hundreds of other concerned citizens requested the contract through Official Information Act (OIA) requests. ALL were declined. You can view these OIA requests here

So many complaints were received by the Ombudsman that they put up this notice on their website basically telling you to not bother them with these requests anymore!

And so the journey started:

First Filing

4th of April 2024, Plaintiff 1-Erika Whittome, Plaintiff 2-John Armstrong and Plaintiff 3-Chris McCashin filed the first application at the Auckland High Court.

Erika Whittome and John Armstrong - Auckland High Court

15th April 2024, first filing fee waver was declined by Deputy Registrar, David Slight who asserted “this (did) not meet the criteria for determining when a proceeding concerns a matter of genuine public interest”.

Second Filing

14th May 2024, second application filed at Auckland High Court, fee waiver accepted. Reference: CIV2024-404-845

8 July 2024: Second filing, judgement by Justice Whata: [2024] NZHC 1840, because “(this) case does not determine genuine public interest and thus no question of law”. Read the judgement by Justice Whata

Justice Whata neither acknowledged nor rebutted the case law which we cited at item 17 of our Application, when the Trade Minister was challenged to reveal the Trans Pacific Partnership Agreement (TPPA) in 2015, the case of Kelsey v Minister of Trade [2015] NZHC 2497 concluded:

“The Crown has entered into an international confidentiality agreement with other negotiating state parties. This cannot override the domestic legal effect of the (Official Information) Act (1982)”.

Third Filing

Before the third filing, I ran a small campaign getting the public to file OIA requests for the contract and buy us a coffee / koha for the 3rd filing. We just scraped in enough to get the 3rd filing paid for (of which the fee increased by 30% over the last filing). Talk about inflation!

What was inspiring was the number of new enthusiastic OIA’s raised over a 2 month period as well as complaints to the Ombudsman. What was interesting this time around was the speed of the standard decline response. In some cases it was within an hour. All the other OIA’s in the past typically used up the full 20 working days for response.

Thanks to everyone who took part in the campaign to get us back to the High Court.

23 September 2024: Third filing, Auckland High Court, ref: CIV-2024-404-000845

Social media release outside the High Court:

4 December 2024: Scheduling at Auckland High Court. Justice Jagose released minutes stating that due to the respondents being the Crown that the case be transferred to Wellington High Court. Read Justice Jagose minutes here

10 February 2025: Scheduling at Wellington High Court via AVL. Tentative dates set for end June 2025 for first hearing. Crown law is representing the Respondents in this case.

Respondents: Minister of Health, The Ombudsman, Minister of Finance, Minister for COVID-19 response (at the time of contract and advance purchase agreements) and the newly added - Pharmac.

WATCH THIS SPACE….

What’s so important about the contract?

The Top 12 Reasons to Release the Pfizer Contract

1) Taxpayer Funds: the public must know how taxpayer funds are spent. The public requires the contract to make fully informed submissions in Phase 2 of the Inquiry.

This is where you can help! Tell Grant Illingworth and the NZ Royal Commission that the Inquiry requires the Pfizer-NZ contract as the very basis of the Inquiry

2) Profit Making Business: Pfizer sells products for substantial profits and is subject to consumer protection laws.

If Pfizer misrepresented the safety and effectiveness of the product, then the Government was induced into the contract by a misrepresentation and entitled to damages.

3) History of Criminal Fines: Pfizer has paid out billions in fines for safety-related and false claims offences, along with fines for government contracting and foreign corrupt practices. Pfizer paid the largest criminal fine ever imposed in the United States for any matter. When contracts are hidden, the risk of corruption increases. Public scrutiny is required to ensure that decisions are made in the public’s best interest, free from improper influence or conflicts of interest.

4) Mandates: the Government used extraordinary executive powers to introduce mandates, unlawfully. New Zealanders were forced to decide whether to take a product, with no medium- or long-term safety data, or lose their family’s income and/or rights to participate in society. If the Government introduced the mandates based on a misrepresentation that the product stopped transmission, then the house of representatives has a duty to the public to hold Pfizer accountable. In turn the NZ Government is equally responsible for trampling our rights under the Bill of Rights Act.

5) Indemnities: the publicly released South African contract confirms that Pfizer made the purchaser acknowledge that the long-term effects, efficacy and adverse effects of the product were not known at the time of entering the contract and that the product should not be serialized.

Something to take note of is that South Africa signed their contract some 6 months plus AFTER NZ. They were also told “ the long term safety and efficacy of the Vaccine are not currently known”. This means we can be certain that the NZ contract would read the same.

So where did the authorities get the information Safe and Effective?

ALL WE HEARD WAS SAFE AND EFFECTIVE FROM THE PODIUM OF TRUTH!

Secrecy surrounding the indemnities undermines trust in the government processes and the public response to any future crisis. See Grant Robertson, the Minister of Finance Pfizer indemnity here

6) Withholding Information: if Pfizer withheld adverse safety data from the Government, then the contract may be illegal or breach the warranties.

7) Health Outcomes: If the product causes harm, New Zealanders need to know if they have legal grounds to seek compensation, criminal investigation and appropriate prosecution.

8) Lack of ACC Cover: prior to the rollout of the product, ACC admitted that it did not have enough funds to cover the likely injuries. ACC is not providing the level of care that injured New Zealanders require. The contract may outline which party is liable and the injured may have grounds to bring a claim (which may also be the reason why Pfizer and/or the Government want to keep the contract secret). Read the request to the Minister of Finance here

9) Pfizer’s Strategy: Pfizer’s commercial position should not be put ahead of the public interest if Pfizer made misrepresentations or required New Zealand assets to be offered up as security (as has happened in other nations).

10) Alternative Treatments: There is an overarching public interest in promoting the transparent conduct of public affairs and for the public to know whether Pfizer’s vaccine strategy included the banning of alternative treatments.

11) Informed Consent: every person has the right to fully understand the risks and benefits of any medical procedure and to make decisions about their own body. If the Government signed a contract that involves any harmful or potential impacts on health, we need to understand what risks the Government accepted on our behalf and if any information is being withheld from the public. This information is important to ascertain if people gave informed consent for the administration of the product. It’s public knowledge that there were no informed consents.

12) Public Interest: A well-functioning democracy requires transparency, especially when public health is at stake. Releasing the contract allows New Zealanders, experts, and advocacy groups to engage in an informed discussion BASED ON THE CONTRACT.

Thanks for reading and please share this everywhere. We all need to keep the pressure on the NZ Government and the Judicial System to get this contract released to the Public. We have the right to receive information.

By John Armstrong