4 August 2021
File No. DOIA 2122-0062
George Doczi
[FYI request #15998 email]
Dear George Doczi
Thank you for your email of 7 July 2021 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE)
requesting the following under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Could you please provide a list of times and dates on which MIQ vouchers were released to the
public on the allocation.miq website over the 4 weeks preceding (and including) July 7th, 2021.
The Managed Isolation Allocation System (MIAS) is designed to give users equal opportunity to gain a
voucher. We are continuing to assess the system to make it as easy as possible for people intending on
travelling to New Zealand.
Vouchers for Managed Isolation and Quarantine (MIQ) are gradually released in batches over several
weeks and months to assist people in different time zones and to help manage the number of users on
the site at any one time. Vouchers are usually released once airlines have confirmed their schedules with
MIQ.
We release vouchers a few times a week – as people’s plans change and vouchers get cancelled. On
any given day there are a few hundred vouchers being booked. And then we do bigger releases. Our last
big release was earlier in July, when we released about 3,500 vouchers.
In response to your specific request, we are withholding that information pursuant to sections 9(2)(ba)(ii)
and 9(2)(k) of the Act, which are grounds related
to avoiding damage to the public interest; and
preventing the disclosure or use of official information for improper gain or improper advantage,
respectively.
An underlying principle of the MIAS booking system is that it gives users equal opportunity to gain a
voucher. By making public the dates and timings of past releases of MIQ vouchers this could, if coupled
together with other publicly available information, provide the recipient of this information with insights
into the operation of the system that the wider public would not have. This would therefore put them in a
position of having an improper advantage over other MIAS users. Consequently, both the fairness and
effectiveness of the MIAS system could be eroded, as well as public confidence in the MIAS system,
which would be detrimental to the public interest.
I do not consider that the withholding of this information is outweighed by public interest considerations in
making the information available.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this response. The relevant
details can be found a
t: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Yours sincerely
Christina Sophocleous-Jones
General Manager National Operations Services
Managed Isolation and Quarantine
