Where a situation arises that is likely to be a risk to public health, the Health Minister is given substantial powers to deal with that risk.
This includes making public health orders, which may include directions the Health Minister considers necessary to address the risk, or its possible consequences.
Within the recent public health orders, the Minister provides “grounds for concluding that there is a risk to public health”.1 Those are, “COVID-19 is potentially fatal and highly contagious” and there is an “ongoing risk of continuing introduction or transmission of the virus”.
As such, the Minister is allowed to make orders necessary to deal with the risk of COVID-19.
And, while those orders are not (strictly speaking) “laws”, it is an offence not to comply with requirements in a public health order.2
