Request for research referred to in GCSB document 'Diversity is our first line of defence'.
Jennifer MacKinnon made this Official Information request to Government Communications Security Bureau
Response to this request is long overdue. By law Government Communications Security Bureau should have responded by now (details and exceptions). The requester can complain to the Ombudsman.
From: Jennifer MacKinnon
Dear Government Communications Security Bureau,
A NZ Herald article “Rainbow spies: NZ's Intelligence Community wins top LGBTTQI+ prize” on 9 October 2020 featured the GCSB as a recipient of a Rainbow award with a link to the GCSB document, “Diversity is our first line of defence” which explains the GCSB ‘Diversity and Inclusion Strategy 2017-2020’. In this document there were quotes on page 8 as if from research, along with a name and date immediately after the quote. However, when I looked for the Reference list to locate a particular article, I discovered there was no reference list. I emailed the GCSB with my request on Wednesday October 14, received a reply that indicated it was being looked into, and the most recent reply relating to this matter was received on October 22. I have not yet received the reference list. It concerns me that such a simple request has turned into a major hunt for the information which makes me even more curious. As it has now been 3 weeks since the original request was made and the answer has not yet been received, I am making the request through the OIA. I believe that any information that has been published that includes quotes which appear to be from research, should have been automatically included in a reference list at the end of the document, and it really should not have taken this long to locate the relevant academic articles.
Yours faithfully,
Jennifer MacKinnon
From: Information (GCSB)
Government Communications Security Bureau
Good morning Jennifer,
We are treating your request of 14 October as a request made under the Official Information Act. The deadline for the response is 12 November 2020. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will notify you of an extension of that timeframe.
If you have any queries, please feel free to contact [GCSB request email].
Kind regards
GCSB
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Ryan left an annotation ()
To the GCSB - Please supply evidence this request was completed in a lawful and timely manner by supplying the documentation for the record so that we all may witness the response.
Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
Mark Hanna left an annotation ()
For the record, because section 12(1AA) of the OIA allows that requests can be communicated in any form and do not need to refer to the Act, this means that your earlier request for this information that the GCSB received on October 14 is already protected by the OIA: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publi...
This also means that the 20 working days allowed under the OIA does not start today, but will have started on October 14 because that is when the GCSB received your request. They should therefore communicate their decision to you as soon as reasonably practicable and in any case no later than November 12, unless they notify you of an extension made under section 15A by then: http://www.legislation.govt.nz/act/publi...
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