The Sovereign Citizen movement has adherents in the Upper Clutha, and Queenstown Lakes District Council (QLDC) has confirmed some have used their beliefs to refuse to pay rates or abide by council processes.

Sovereign citizens believe they are bound by statutes only if they consent to them. While they have been active in New Zealand for at least a decade, the movement appears to be increasing in popularity.

Sovereign citizens (or adherents of ‘common law’) use pseudo-legal arguments to avoid paying licence fees, fines, and even rates.

In response to a recent request by Stuff NZ, QLDC consulted its rates and customer services teams to find examples of Queenstown Lakes residents who have used such arguments against complying with council processes.

“We can confirm that we have received communications from five ratepayers and residents relating to sovereign citizen ideals who have either “refused to pay rates or abide by other council processes,” QLDC spokesperson Sam White told the Wānaka App. 

One such letter received in the Wānaka QLDC office in December 2022, said “Living [wo]man is giving notification of Natural land Claim/A[Al]lodial title; which is land of substance; free and not subject to any lord or superior; owned without obligation of vassalage or fealty; the opposite of feudal.”

The letter claimed the Crown was using legislation to “mislead with intent to claim ownership and administration of living [wo]man and physical land through deception, using an artificial construct”.

Wānaka lawyer Janice Hughes told the Wānaka App she has noticed a change over the past few years from the ‘bush lawyer’ (someone claiming legal knowledge who is not qualified) to the ‘google lawyer’ (an unqualified person who gets their legal knowledge by doing a google search).  

“This common law business is just the current angle of that sort of thing,” she said.

“They are about as effective as the google doctor because the internet generally provides enough information to be dangerous.”

There have been a range of other incidents in the Upper Clutha showing people are testing the Sovereign Citizen/common law approach.

‘No trespassing’ signs have popped up on private properties around Wānaka, which say the occupants “are under common law jurisdiction and protection”, claiming a minimum penalty of $10,000 will apply “upon one step onto this Private Property”.

Janice said the only effect such signs could have would be as a warning not to trespass on that property, and “the amounts on the notice are not enforceable”. 

“If someone has been warned to keep off a property, and they don’t leave or they come back within two years of the warning, that’s likely to be a criminal offence but the penalty for trespass offences is a fine of up to $1,000 or a prison term of up to three months. This is covered by the Trespass Act 1980,” she said. 

In 2021 a Wānaka woman appearing in the Queenstown District Court denied being a person, telling the judge she was “a living being on the land”. She was later found not guilty on an assault charge.

In early 2022 a group of locals served a ‘notice of liability’ on both Wānaka’s general practices, claiming the practices would be held liable for any harm arising from the administration of Covid-19 vaccines “under NZ’s Natural Law principles”.

The ‘notice of liability’ was prepared by New Zealand Doctors Speak Out With Science (NZDSOS), a group of doctors and other medical professionals opposed to vaccination and other public health measures.

Janice told the Wānaka App the notice did not carry legal weight.  

“The references to criminal law in the notice are sections that require intent. Clearly there is no intent by any party involved in vaccinating or following health protocols to cause any harm. The actions being taken by those people are intended to prevent harm.”

Janice suggested before people test the ‘sovereign citizen’ or ‘common law’ approach they should “get legal advice so they can tailor their approach to whatever they actually want to achieve”.