 22-7. This morning's big question, has the lockdown been illegal? We have leaked emails from the Deputy Police Commissioner Mike Clemen to start to show that Crown Law warned police that in the first two weeks they actually had little to no power to enforce the lockdown and then even when Ashley Bloomfield issued specific regulations there are questions over the lawfulness of those orders. Political editor Barry Sapers with us. Morning to you Barry. Good morning Mike. Now is this separate to what Andrew Gettis is going on about? This is quite separate. These emails came from the police. They were issued to the police Mike three days after the lockdown and you'll remember at the time there was a great rush to get into lockdown because we went through the minor levels and then straight to level four and the police were feeling rightfully quite exposed because the regulations that were subsequently made not at the time but subsequently made by Ashley Bloomfield under the Health Act. There's question, legal questions over whether that was the right act. I mean it's a 1956 act and whether that was the right one and Parliament's Regulation Review Committee they wrote last week to Ashley Bloomfield saying there are good many questions over the lawfulness of the orders and he issued and in particular the orders that he had issued and in particular isolating and quarantining people who aren't sick and then closing down businesses so yeah there's a lot of questions still over whether the police when they go out to enforce the orders are doing so under the law correctly. So when you say still that this doesn't apply to the first two weeks they didn't get it sorted out they're still under level three they think have issues potentially. Oh yes there are a lot of complaints from senior policemen and don't forget Mike the Crown law opinion which was given right at the beginning of all of this the government has refused to release that David Parker the Attorney General he has said no there's no good reason given for why they haven't released it but if you look at the interpretation that Mike Clement has made of that Crown law opinion which I haven't seen but he said the standard police powers to stop search and surveil must be exercised for their statutory purpose and may not be used to assist the police in the enforcement and isolation campaign that is being run. What they're saying is that you can you've got to have a reason to pull people over for example at a rate you can't just go high under COVID-19 we're just wondering what you're up to that's illegal isn't it. That's what the police seem to be saying to to their officers be very careful they've been told to minimize legal risk and they should use coercive or non-coercive community policing powers to the greatest extent possible and encouraging compliance with the campaign but certainly not pulling people over and saying you're not complying because then they could be in some sort of legal difficulty. So and this goes back to a small clique of people running this country at the moment and the health act of 1956 and this brings in getters who questions the whole thing and whether it's illegal I suppose it will only ever get tested if somebody took them to court wouldn't it. Oh absolutely and you remember Mike I think was last week the appeal president court appeal of appeal president Stephen Koch he said last Friday that the rules and how they're being applied have raised many questions and obviously they're not being challenged they were challenged once but the people that launched the challenge weren't seen to be all together that credible so I think if somebody did take a case there could be a few problems here. All right Mike I appreciate it very much Barry Sopra our political editor just on getters he's working with a woman called Claudette Geiringer and this is all taking place on an international law website but he's going back to the health act of 1956 as well and questioning whether it's fit for purpose issued an epidemic notice under the epidemic preparedness act of 2006 declared a state of emergency under the civil defense and emergency management act which together triggered executive government powers namely section 70 medical officers of health and this is where Ashley Bloomfield comes in basically he's running the country along with the head of civil defense who I bet you will as I've asked you before bet you can't tell me what her name is and so that these just this handful of people have an extraordinary amount of power and nobody seems to care about it 18 away from seven. A good economic news from Australia that might might flow through this particular part of the world stats out over the weekend on the Australian house market house prices went up in april so that's encouraging houses perform better than units regions did better than cities but overall house prices went up and they've been able to trade for a period of time because they've had a looser lockdown than us cars dealerships have been opened through what they would call their lockdown they haven't been here only got open under level three and in very limited form but across the Tasman under limited form they've been able to you know carry on with online sales they expected the massive hit something like 75,000 down on the year before it turned out to be only about its preliminary at the stage only about 30 to 45 down so not nearly as bad as they thought so hopefully that flows through here 16 to 7