8 March 2022
File No. DOIA 2122-1513 & 2122-1543
Matthew Hooton
[FYI request #18428 email]
Dear Matthew Hooton
Thank you for your emails of 29 January and 3 February 2022 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and
Employment (MBIE) requesting the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
You have requested the following information for December 2021 and January 2022:
how many people arrived in New Zealand and entered MIQ and how many, if any, went straight
into self-isolation?
Of those, how many were:
1) New Zealand Citizens?
2) NZ Permanent Residents
3) Other?
Please note, we have combined your requests and are responding under one response as they are
requesting the same information for two different sequential months. Please note the below does not
include those who entered New Zealand in December using the Government’s Self Isolation Pilot. You
can find information about the Pilot here:
https://www.miq.govt.nz/travel-to-new-zealand/self-isolation-
pilot /
Regarding your request for
how many people arrived in New Zealand and entered MIQ, please see the
data table below.
Citizenship
Dec-2021
Jan-2022
NZ Citizen
8,129
6,986
NZ Permanent Resident
1,874
2,559
Australian Citizen or Permanent Resident
331
389
New Zealand Temporary Visa Holder
2,090
1,715
Not Enough Information
457
562
Total
12,881
12,211
Context about statistics
We have broken down your request for ‘
other’ as Australian Citizen or Australian Permanent Resident
and a New Zealand Temporary Visa Holder.
This data has been sourced from Managed Isolation Allocation System (MIAS). When registering for MIAS,
users or passengers are required to answer questions regarding their eligibility to travel to New Zealand.
Some MIAS records do not have responses to all questions, such as citizenship. These have been grouped
under ‘Not Enough Information’. We note that those who fall under the “not enough information”
category are likely to come under one of the above categories and will be checked by Airline staff prior to
boarding, and again on arrival in New Zealand. If they do not have the right to enter New Zealand, they
will not be boarded.
Please note, a proportion of voucher holders may not make it to New Zealand as indicated on their
voucher arrival date. Processes are followed to identify these people and remove them from this dataset,
but some may still be present.
Additionally, this dataset will not include unexpected border arrivals into MIQ that did not need a MIAS
voucher, such as a symptomatic aircrew on a cargo flight that requires a space in MIQ. The data set will
also not include arrivals who are planned and allowed to stay a shorter period in MIQ, such as maritime
crew changes, and aircrew.
How many went into self-isolation
Regarding the part of your request seeking information on
how many, if any, went straight into self-
isolation – under the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Order 2020, arrivals
into New Zealand are required to isolate in MIQ facilities unless an exemption is granted under clause 12
or 14 of the COVID-19 Public Health Response (Isolation and Quarantine) Order 2020 IQ, which are
exemptions under medical grounds or exemptional circumstances.
I can confirm that for the months of December 2021 and January 2022, there were zero approved
exemption applications where the applicant has applied to bypass MIQ and isolate at home upon arrival.
By way of relevant context, as you are likely aware, the Government announced on 3 February 2022 its
plan for Reconnecting New Zealanders to the World. This is the plan to safely re-open our borders and
develop new ways for people to travel to and from Aotearoa New Zealand. Included in that was the
decision that the border will reopen to vaccinated New Zealanders from Australia at 11.59pm 27 February
2022; it reopens to New Zealanders in the rest of the world on 4 March 2022. MIQ is removed for most
travellers in phased reconnection, and tests on-arrival while MIQ is to remain for the unvaccinated.
The Reconnecting Plan had been due to start on 17th of January 2022 – in the period your information
request covers - but had been deferred due to the arrival of the Omicron variant of the COVID-19 virus
within New Zealand communities. The timing change for Reconnecting New Zealand was to allow more
time for New Zealanders to take up the ‘booster’.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of my decision relating to this
request, in accordance with section 28(3) of the Act. The relevant details can be found at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Yours sincerely
Russel Burnard
General Manager, MIQ National Operations Service
Managed Isolation and Quarantine
