50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
4 September 2019
Gerard Byrne
[FYI request #10921 email]
REF: OIA-5575
Dear Gerard
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email of 8 August 2019 requesting the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
‘can you please provide all receipts for legal representation from the Johnson VS Byrne
Harassment hearing in Whangarei, June 19, 2019. CIV 2019-088-113 and 2019-088-114
Johnson v Byrne, also all emails, memos and reports relating to the above hearing.
Please redact all names and any sensitive information for your upcoming appeal hearing in
the employment court involving the same parties, on 4-6 november, 2019 in the Whangarei
District Court’.
The NZ Transport Agency did not contribute financially to this litigation. I am therefore refusing this
part of your request under section 18(e) of the Act because the document(s) alleged to contain the
information requested does not exist or, despite reasonable efforts to locate it, cannot be found.
I am also refusing the part of your request for “emails, memos and reports relating to the above
hearing” under section 27(1)(g) of the Act because the disclosure of this information would breach
legal professional privilege.
I do not consider that it is in the public interest to make this information available.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to
refuse your request. You can find the contact details for the Ombudsman at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
If you would like to discuss this reply with the NZ Transport Agency, please contact Linda Bird, Lead
Advisor Employment Relations, by email to [email address] or by phone on 04 894 5400.
Yours sincerely
Chris Lokum
General Manager, People