In its June 2016 decision in Mita Michael Rirunui v. Landcorp Farming Limited and The Attorney General, the Supreme Court of New Zealand reaffirmed the judicial review of government contracting. While it ultimately refused to grant a remedy in a dispute over a cancelled tendering process involving complex parallel land treaty claims, the court cited existing New Zealand and U.K. case law that recognized the applicability of judicial review against government commercial contracting decisions involving fraud, corruption or bad faith. The court also recognized potential judicial review remedies where contracting decisions are not strictly commercial but involve a “substantial public element.”
