“Voluntary Undertakings” – The Secret Censorship Weapon of the MCNZ

The Medical Council of New Zealand (MCNZ), instead of being neutral and letting doctors be doctors during the covid response, sided with the government and became one of their enforcement arms, trying to silence doctors who did not buy (or abide by) the official narrative.

By silencing and censoring doctors asking valid questions, members of the MCNZ have not acted with integrity or in the interests of the public during the covid years and beyond.

It was evident to some of us early in 2020 that all was not as it seemed, to put it politely.  Doctors received instructions NOT to prescribe a long-standing approved medicine (hydroxychloroquine) in March 2020. 

Fake studies with completely fabricated data were published briefly in prestigious medical journals to discredit it.  Citizens were locked down and businesses were closed but no-one in officialdom would answer who was counting the harm caused by such measures.

Covid ‘cases’ were being tallied daily with insufficient detail to know if they were actually sick people or just positive tests.  Fear-mongering messages were blasting on the airwaves constantly.  No-one spoke about optimising health or the immune system.

As the vaccine narrative gained momentum during late 2020 to the exclusion of all else, some doctors felt compelled to speak publicly.

Although there was heavy censorship, some messages got through to members of the public whose BS detectors had been activated.  By the latter half of 2021, as the imperative to get a needle in every arm and talk of ‘hunting down the hesitant’ proceeded at pace, too many messages of caution from concerned doctors must have been reaching ordinary New Zealanders.  The MCNZ had to act.

In quick succession ‘rogue’ doctors were contacted by MCNZ. Many were offered “Voluntary Undertakings” to sign.  ‘Voluntary’ is a misnomer.  If doctors declined to sign or dared to suggest modified wording, their Annual Practicing Certificates were quickly suspended. 

Effectively ‘sign this or else…’ A number of us did refuse to sign and are still bearing the consequences. Others signed theirs but still were punished. 

A Voluntary Undertaking (VU) is a secret pact between a doctor and the MCNZ.  It is not a public document so it is impossible to know if your doctor signed one and agreed to abide by its limitations. However doctors were required to show the VU to any employers. In some cases this has prevented doctors being able to work. 

The VUs on offer by the MCNZ to the doctors standing by their ethics in 2021 were gag orders containing such restrictions as:

Some were also more than gag orders as they sought to restrict the prescribing and certification options of qualified doctors.

How are members of the public to know if they are being told the whole truth when their doctor may have been gagged by one of these?

Freedom of Expression as per the NZ Bill of Rights Act goes two ways as in: “Everyone has the right to freedom of expression, including the freedom to seek, receive, and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form.”

Not only was the Medical Council gagging some doctors – those it hadn’t forced into line already with its now-infamous guidance statement – it was limiting information the public could receive.

An alternative approach was well articulated by the legal representative in one of our court cases.

“The best response to speech the Medical Council disagrees with is not absolute censorship, but rather for it to have the courage and strength of its convictions. The Medical Council was free to respond in public to Dr Goodwin’s speech and explain, from a position of significant resources, mana and influence, what it considered she had got wrong.  By suspending her, the Medical Council has instead created an impression of trying to silence ideas it has no answer to.”

Worldwide, medical regulators have said that usual human rights to freedom of expression do not apply to us because our views as professionals carry more influence. This is precisely why we must speak out. Our influence comes from education, trust, experience, fiduciary obligation and upholding ethical standards.

The Medical Council of New Zealand is an organisation that has lost its way.  It appears to be following the orders of bodies outside of New Zealand (IAMRA, FSMB, WHO) without divulging this to the profession or the public.  It has forsaken both the doctors it oversees and the public it purports to protect.  If the members had integrity they would step down and speak out themselves.

If you are in a profession being subject to limitation of free speech by your regulator, the Free Speech Union (FSU) wants to hear from you.

Please note, none of these voluntary undertakings were signed by the doctors involved so the MCNZ then took further action against them.