Lawson v Housing New Zealand - [1997] 2 NZLR 474

Administrative law — Judicial review — Housing New Zealand — Tenant applying for judicial review of decisions by Housing New Zealand to increase rents for state houses to market levels — Whether decisions amenable to judicial review.

Judicial review — Legitimate expectation — Housing New Zealand policy to increase rents for state houses to market levels — Statements by government before policy implemented that no one to be forced to move from house — Whether tenant had legitimate expectation she would not be forced out of home if unable to afford market rent.

Constitutional law — New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 — Right to life — Housing New Zealand increasing rents for state houses to market levels — Whether deprivation of adequate and affordable shelter breach of right to life — Whether a market rents reasonable limit prescribed by law and demonstrably justified in a democratic society — New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, ss 5 and 8.

Administrative law — Judicial review — International covenants and conventions — Housing New Zealand increasing rents for state houses to market levels — Whether breach of international instruments to which New Zealand a party — Whether international instruments taken into account in decisions — International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights — United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights, art 25.1 — International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights, arts 2.1 and 11(1) — Convention on the Rights of the Child, art 27.