Thank you for contacting the office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Minister of
Foreign Affairs, Minister of Local Government, and Associate Minister for
Mâori Development.

 

Minister Mahuta receives a significant volume of correspondence:

 

If your message is for Minister Mahuta’s advice, or if you have copied
your email to another Minister and/or Member of Parliament with more
appropriate portfolio responsibilities, then this will be noted,

 

·       If you have invited Minister Mahuta to an event, then a member of
staff may contact you for more information if the Minister’s attendance
might be possible,

·       If you have made a request for official information, then this
will be managed in accordance with the provisions of the Official
Information Act 1982, which may include transfer to a more relevant
Minister or agency,

·       If you have made a request under the Privacy Act, then this will
be managed in accordance with the principles of the Privacy Act 1993,
which may include transfer to a more relevant Minister or agency,

·       If you are a journalist, you can make a media request by visiting
the following link Media Request<https://bit.ly/2IJDfQP>

·       To find out more about Minister Mahuta read her
biography<https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/bio...> or
recent statements<https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/hon...>.

 

Ngâ mihi

 

[1]cid:image002.jpg@01D6B683.B93AFC70 Office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta
Minister of Foreign Affairs |
Minister of Local Government |
Associate Minister for Mâori
Development

DDI: 04 817 8711

Private Bag 18041, Parliament
Buildings, Wellington 6160, New
Zealand

 

[2]https://xink.io/wp-content/themes/Xink/a...

Please note information about meetings related to the Ministers’
portfolios will be proactively released (this does not include personal or
constituency matters). For each meeting in scope, the summary would list:
date, time (start and finish), brief description, location, who the
meeting was with, and the portfolio. If you attend a meeting with the
Minister on behalf of an organisation, the name of the organisation will
be released. If you are a senior staff member at an organisation, or meet
with the Minister in your personal capacity, your name may also be
released. The location of the meeting will be released, unless it is a
private residence. The proactive release will be consistent with the
provisions in the Official Information Act, including privacy
considerations. Under the Privacy Act 1993 you have the right to ask for a
copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to
be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of
your information, or to have it corrected, or are concerned about the
release of your information in the meeting disclosure, please contact the
sender. You can read more about the proactive release policy at
[6]https://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Releas...

Authorised by Hon Nanaia Mahuta, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160,
New Zealand

 

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References

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2. https://www.facebook.com/NanaiaMahutaMP/
3. https://twitter.com/nanaiamahuta
4. https://www.linkedin.com/in/nanaia-mahut...
5. https://www.beehive.govt.nz/minister/hon...
6. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Releas...

Tēnā koe Luke,

I acknowledge receipt of your official information request dated 6/01/22.

We received your request on 10/01/22. We will endeavour to respond to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 14/02/22, being 20 working days after the day your request was received. 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 our office. If any additional factors come to light which are relevant to your request, please do not hesitate to contact us so that these can be taken into account.

Ngā mihi
Office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta

show quoted sections

Tçnâ koe Luke

 

Thank you for your further email following the Minister of Local
Government’s response of 8 December 2021 to your Official Information Act
request of 27 October 2021.

 

In response to question 4 of your email, I can confirm that all formal
written submissions received by the Department of Internal Affairs from
councils following the eight-week consultation period were copied directly
to the Minister of Local Government by her office. As noted in the
Minister of Local Government’s 8 December letter to you, the Department
has published these submissions on its website at the following link:
[1]https://www.dia.govt.nz/local-government....

 

In response to questions 1, 2, 3, and 5 of your email, I reiterate that
neither the Minister nor her office hold a record of the number of
submissions personally read by the Minister. As noted in the Minister’s
attached letter to you, all submissions were reviewed and analysed by
officials from the Department, and advice and recommendations on those
submissions was provided to the Minister in the form of a Summary Report.
My apologies that an incorrect link to this document was provided in the
Minister’s letter – I’ve attached a PDF.

 

You have the right, under s 28(3) of the Official Information Act, to seek
an investigation and review of this decision by the Office of the
Ombudsman. The postal address of the Office of the Ombudsman is PO Box
10152, Wellington. Alternatively, you can phone 0800 802 602 or email
[2][email address].

 

Ngâ mihi

 

Charlie Rahiri

Senior Ministerial Advisor

Office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta

 

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References

Visible links
1. https://www.dia.govt.nz/local-government...
2. mailto:[email address]

Tena Koe,

 

I am out of the office until Friday 04 March, 2022.  I will check my
emails and phone periodically and respond to requests when I can.

 

If it is urgent please text me on +64 21 826 031

 

Nga Manaakitanga

 

Charlie Rahiri

 

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Tena Koe Luke,

The right under the OIA is to request ‘any specified official information’. ‘Official information’ is defined in the Act as any information held by an agency or Minister in their official capacity. There are also specific exclusions to the definition of official information. This suggests that there is no right under the OIA to request information that is not held by any agency, but would need to be created.

We have responded as reasonably as possible by explaining that the Minister nor her office hold any document or official information as outlined in section 2 of the OIA in response to parts 1, 2 3 and 5 of your request. We have also provided an explanation of the procedures by which the submissions were reviewed and analysed and where you may find these submissions. We feel that we have therefore met our obligations under the Act by providing what we do know and hold.

We stand by the decision to refuse these parts of your request under section 18(g) of the Act on the basis that the information is not held by the Minister or another department or Minister of the Crown. As noted previously, you have the right, under s 28(3) of the Official Information Act, to seek an investigation and review of this decision by the Office of the Ombudsman. The postal address of the Office of the Ombudsman is PO Box 10152, Wellington. Alternatively, you can phone 0800 802 602 or email [email address].

I now consider this matter closed.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Charlie Rahiri | Senior Ministerial Advisor
DDI +64 4 817 8872 | Mobile +64 021 0255 2859| Email [email address]

Office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta MP | Minister of Foreign Affairs | Minister of Local Government | Associate Minister for Māori Development

show quoted sections

Dear Mr Geange

 

I am writing to provide a further response to your Official Information
Act (OIA) request of 6 January 2022 regarding the number of public
submissions read by the Minister of Local Government regarding the
proposed Three Waters reforms.

 

Your request on 6 January asked for:

 

1.       Does the number of submissions on the proposed Three Waters
reforms that have been personally read in full by the Minister exceed 0?

 

2.       Does the number of submissions on the proposed Three Waters
reforms that have been personally read in full by the Minister exceed 1?

 

3.       In the absence of a formal record, does the Minister believe she
has read more than 10 submissions in full?

 

4.       How many submissions on the proposed Three Waters reforms have
been directly referred to the Minister, from the Department of Internal
Affairs or any other agency, for her personal review?

 

5.       Within the scope described in Question 4, Have any of those
submissions been read in full by the Minister?

 

6.       Please release the Summary Report from the Department of Internal
Affairs containing recommendations based on the Three Waters submissions.
A URL to this information was released in a previous OIA request, but that
link leads to a 404 error. Please provide a PDF, if possible.

 

On 14 March you received a response from the Office of Hon Nanaia Mahuta
providing answers to questions 4 and 6 of your request.  In relation to
questions 1,2,3 and 5 the response noted that information on the number of
individual submissions read in full by the Minister was not specifically
recorded so we could not provide a response to those parts of your
request.

 

You have laid a complaint with the Ombudsman regarding this response and
our office has engaged with the Ombudsman’s preliminary inquiry.  As part
of this we have informed the Ombudsman that while there is no written
record held of the number of the submission read by the Minister it is her
recollection that she read substantially all of the submissions from Local
Authorities on the proposed Three Waters reforms.  However, due to the
passage of time it is not possible to state with confidence the exact
number of submissions that she read and whether they were read in full or
in part.  

 

The Ombudsman has requested that we provide you with this response as it
may resolve your complaint without the need for further investigation.

 

Kind regards,

 

[1]cid:image002.jpg@01D6B683.B93AFC70 Michael Naylor

Ministerial Advisor | Office of Hon
Nanaia Mahuta MP
Minister of Foreign Affairs |
Minister of Local Government |
Associate Minister for Māori
Development

 

M: 021 860 405

Private Bag 18041, Parliament
Buildings, Wellington 6160, New
Zealand

 

 

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References

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