The new chief operating officer of NZ's second-biggest logistics company has repeatedly tried and failed to come to NZ to take up his job – so this week he took matters into his own hands.
Chris Knuth was travelling on a two-leg ticket to Fiji, when he flew into Auckland International Airport this week. But instead of turning left to go to transit, he turned right.
And he walked through immigration, his passport was scanned, and he went through to the MIQ bus, with nobody saying anything.
He said to a police officer, "hey, you need to know, I don't have an MIQ spot". As he tells it, the officer laughed at him and said, "get on the bus".
The actions of the Move Logistics executive have exposed a loophole in MIQ operations that will likely be exploited by other frustrated travellers, according to the NZX-listed company's executive director Chris Dunphy.
"Chris turned up and, look, he didn't have any permission to do a damn thing.... He just ran the red light." – Chris Dunphy, Move Logistics
"And so they should. This is the insanity of what we're dealing with. This is a rigged lottery. And I'm talking personally, not as Move Logistics executive director, when I say this: Can we have respect for a system where, basically, citizens are told, you can't come home?
"Non-citizens are told, if you're an essential worker, whatever that description might be on a particular day. Or if you're pregnant, and you're in a third world country, you're allowed in or not allowed in. So the rules are being made up as people go along.
"And basically, Chris turned up and, look, he didn't have any permission to do a damn thing. He simply gamed the system and was successful. I don't think that anybody could say, 'how dare you', because there was clearly availability – the hotel he's in is empty. So why wouldn't you?"
For Move Logistics, this is part of a bigger picture. Dunphy is also stranded in Australia, unsuccessful in winning either essential worker status or a place in the MIQ lottery, and fighting to return home to New Zealand. He had been approved as one of the first 150 business executives to take part in a self isolation trial when they returned home, but was thwarted by new travel restrictions.
The company has hired Martelli McKegg partner Jacque Lethbridge, who also successfully won the right for Rich Lister Murray Bolton to travel overseas and return home to self isolate.
Lethbridge, a respected litigator who takes up the position of president of the New Zealand Law Society in April, has acted in a number of border, MIQ and self isolation cases.
With yesterday's Prime Ministerial announcement of a phased reopening of the border from February 27, Dunphy has been able to book a February 28 flight to New Zealand.
But despite that, Dunphy says the company is determined to push forward with its judicial review to provide businesses with "iron-clad certainty" about freedom of movement for key personnel. Lethbridge is to advise him today on how to proceed in his own bid to be allowed back to self-isolate at home in Christchurch.
The Prime Minister's announcement was hosted by Business NZ. "While we don’t support breaching the border rules, we do have great sympathy for the many businesses in this situation that have had key people not able to do their jobs because they can’t get an MIQ spot to enter or re-enter New Zealand," says chief executive Kirk Hope. "Thankfully this is nearing an end so that businesses and their people are not put in this difficult and distressing situation in the future."
As for Move Logistics' new appointee Chris Knuth, it's unclear whether he's now home free. He has been put in a room at the Sudima Hotel MIQ facility at Auckland International Airport, which had previously been used for the managed isolation of arrivees whose immigration status is still in dispute.
But he's been told he just has to do his 10 days, deliver his negative Covid tests, and then he'll be allowed to leave the hotel – and to start his new job running Move's freight services, in Auckland.
"It wasn't a company edict or directive that said to him, why don't you just try and get home at any cost," Dunphy explains. "But he just said out of frustration, you know what, I'm coming home. And the rest, as they say, is history. He got to Auckland and he decided, I really don't think a Fiji holiday is going to work for me – I'd really like to stay here. So he just ran the red light.
"On a personal level, I'm sitting there going, clap clap. And on a corporate level, I'm going well, we've got this legal action going on over here, Chris, and for me personally we're still running down the self quarantine route. Because to the extent that there's been announcements, we are somewhat jaundiced and and wanting to ensure that my return is not somehow changed or compromised by some unforeseen event."
Knuth was meant to bein the office from the start of December, but he's been working remotely until he can get his feet on the ground. "We've made funds available to him," Dunphy says. "I don't want it to seem like a bloody hard luck story – we look after our people and he's one of us. But in terms of actually getting paid and getting in the seat, he's got to be there. Eyes on the prize."
Move has also been paying for his legal advice around the judicial review, though not around the border breach: "Jacque didn't sanction Chris going off bloody reservation any more than we did," Dunphy emphasises. "When you meet this guy, you'll understand what you're dealing with."
""It wasn't a company edict or directive that said to him, why don't you just try and get home at any cost.... He simply gamed the system and was successful. I don't think that anybody could say, 'how dare you', because there was clearly availability – the hotel he's in is empty. So why wouldn't you?" – Chris Dunphy
Move director Dunphy is acting chief executive, and it was in that capacity that he recruited Knuth, a former colleague when they both worked at Mainfreight. Both had been working the past few years in Australia, Dunphy in Melbourne and Knuth in Brisbane.
On the announcement of his appointment in October, Knuth proceeded to sell his home and apply for an MIQ space. When he wasn't able to get an MIQ slot, despite repeated attempts, he then applied on hardship grounds. He argued he was between jobs, had no income and no home, and was being forced to sleep on the couch at his ex-wife's home while he waited to leave Brisbane. But his applications were unsuccessful.
Move was preparing to seek a judicial review of his case, too, but Knuth pre-empted matters by busting the border in Auckland on Wednesday night.
"Isn't that just logistics and supply chain in itself, right?" Dunphy laughs. "So here's a small space that you've got to extrude yourself through and in order to get the job you've got to actually push yourself through this bloody tunnel.
"He's playing the cards he's dealt. I mean, this is a guy who, as a New Zealand citizen, has not been afforded the rights that he was born with. So he arrived at immigration last night, and walked through. Absolutely. It wasn't like anybody questioned him being there.
"Instead of turning left to go to transit, he turned right. And he went through immigration, his passport was scanned, and he went through to the bus, with nobody saying anything."
Dunphy recounted the exchange with the police officer. "The cop laughed at him and said, 'get on the bus."
Wearing his trucker's cap as Move executive director, Dunphy said he could not endorse Knuth running the red light – but he did think businesses were being let down by the Government and its inconsistency around border closures.
"In my official position, I say there has been a wonderful opportunity for the Government to engage further and better with private enterprise and they've chosen not to, and that is to their detriment. We as New Zealanders, absent of any capitalist need or want, simply seek to re-engage with the world."
That's why the company was determined to proceed with filing a judicial review. Like the Grounded Kiwis High Court action, he said his company was motivated by the provisions of s18 of the Bill of Rights, providing New Zealanders the right to enter the country.
But furthermore, he said, there were pragmatic grounds to continue with the court action. "We are delighted that the Government has actually announced what they have. But what we're looking for is certainty in terms of being able to have executives moving.
"We've got business not only in New Zealand, but in Australia and further afield. I'm going up to America tomorrow to negotiate the purchase of a vessel. Now, if I was in New Zealand doing this, I wouldn't be able to come back to New Zealand under the current construct. So yes, there are a whole lot of commercial issues here that we want to ensure are locked in and iron-clad with respect to being able to move freely."
