8 July 2022
45 Pipitea St
PO Box 805
Wellington 6140
David Hay
Phone +64 4 495 7200
Feed Families Not Pokies Aotearoa (via FYI.org.nz)
Fax +64 4 495 7222
Via em
ail: [FYI request #19258 email]
Websit
e dia.govt.nz
Tēnā koe David
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 2 May 2022 (ref 21/22 0743)
Thank you for your OIA request dated 2 May 2022 to the Department of Internal Affairs
(Department). You asked for the following information –
“In order to satisfy our curiosity, we now request the following information under the
Official Information Act:
All internal emails, memos, file notes, and other information relevant to the "Barrett
Case" sent and received within DIA from January 2018 to 30 June 2021.
All correspondence (including but not limited to formal briefings, advice, explanations,
etc), between DIA and the Minister of Internal Affairs, and/or members of the
Minister's office staff, regarding the "Barrett Case" from January 2018 to 31 December
2021.
All correspondence between DIA and the Lion Foundation, and/or between DIA and the
law firm known as Fee Langstone, regarding the "Barrett Case" and any aspect of it,
during the period from January 2018 to 31 December 2021.
In regard to the last part of our request, we are well aware of the protections the Act
provides for "professional legal privilege" in section 9(2)(h). We are also aware of the
Ombudsman's advice about when and how that protection should be provided under
the Act. It is our position that if the information we have requested does exist, then it
would be "...desirable, in the public interest, to make that information available."
On 30 May 2022, we wrote to you to extend the statutory timeframe for responding to your
request under sections 15A(1)(a) and (b) of the OIA. A new timeframe of 8 July 2022 was set.
Principle of availability
The guiding principle for considering your request for official information is the principle of
availability (section 5 of the OIA). That is, information must be made available on request
unless there is good reason for withholding it. “Good reason” for withholding information is
provided for in the OIA, and it is against this framework that we considered whether to
withhold official information in this case.
Response to your first request
We have identified
23 documents within scope of your request. These documents are listed
in the table below and are attached to this letter as
Appendix A.
Two documents have been withheld in full under the OIA for reasons described in the table
listed at Appendix A below. Therefore, we are releasing
21 documents to you under your
first request.
Where it is necessary, we are relying on grounds listed under section 9(2) of the OIA. The
grounds under section 9 are subject to the public interest test in section 9(1). The particular
grounds in question are as follows:
• Section 9(2)(a) – the withholding of the information is necessary to protect the
privacy of natural persons; and
• Section 9(2)(h) – the withholding of the information is necessary to maintain legal
professional privilege.
Under section 9(2)(a), we are withholding names of certain individuals (including the venue
manager) along with other identifying details in order to protect their privacy.
Under section 9(2)(h), Documents 4 and 22 of Appendix A are withheld in full as they are
legally privileged.
A more extensive search is required to determine if there is any other information in scope
of your first request. In particular, we would need to search through the Department’s
document management systems and the electronic inboxes of current and former staff of
the Department to locate and extract any relevant material. This work would take many
months to complete to the detriment of our other operations. Therefore, we are refusing
the remainder of your first request under section 18(f) of the OIA due to the substantial
amount of work that would be required to research and collate the remaining material.
As required under section 18A of the OIA, we have considered whether charging or
extending the timeframe further than the Department’s extension would help. However,
due to the open-ended nature of this first request, we did not consider that these options
would assist.
As required by section 18B of the OIA, we wrote to you on 26 May and 3 June 2022 to
discuss your first request. You phoned us on 23 June 2022, advising that you did not wish to
refine your first request and you had intended to ‘cast the net widely’.
We recognise there may be a public interest in the release of information about the
“Barrett” case. However, we do not consider that this public interest outweighs the grounds
for withholding outlined above. Therefore, the withholding of this information is not
outweighed by other public interest considerations which render it desirable to make that
information available. Therefore, sections 9(2)(a) and 9(2)(h) constitute good reasons for
withholding the information in question.
In addition, we are relying on section 18(c)(i), which is not subject to the public interest test,
to withhold the name of the venue manager and the venue name as there is a current
suppression order in place. Please note, while the use of 18(c)(i) has not been referred to in
the documents for Appendix A, this ground applies to any information that identifies the
venue manager and venue as described in Appendix A below.
Page 9 of 9
Response to your second request
For your second request, the Department is providing you with
four documents. These
documents are listed in the table below and are attached to this letter as
Appendix B.
For Document 2 of Appendix B, we located nine Departmental Status Reports sent to the
Minister of Internal Affairs which contain relevant material regarding the “Barrett” case. For
this, we have extracted all relevant updates and Departmental OIA requests and inserted
these into one PDF document. For transparency, we have listed the date each update and
Departmental OIA was sent to the Minister of Internal Affairs.
For Document 3 of Appendix B, we have provided an email exchange between Departmental
staff and staff from the Minister of Internal Affairs office. The remaining correspondence in
this document are internal email exchanges between Departmental staff and falls in scope of
your first request. We have also withheld some correspondence as this does not fall in scope
of your requests.
For Document 4 of Appendix B, this is an attachment to Document 3. This is internal
correspondence between DIA staff and therefore also falls in scope of your first request.
We are releasing the documents subject to the withholding of Departmental staff cellular
phone numbers and named individuals under section 9(2)(a) of the OIA. The withholding of
this information is not outweighed by other public interest considerations which render it
desirable to make that information available. Therefore, section 9(2)(a) constitutes a good
reason for withholding this information under the OIA.
Response to your third request
For correspondence between the Department and the gaming society, we have located
two
documents within scope of your request. These documents are located in
Appendix A as
Documents 6 and 18.
For correspondence between the Department and the law firm Fee Langstone, we have
located 38 emails. All of this correspondence is legally privileged. Therefore, we are
withholding all correspondence between the Department and Fee Langstone under section
9(2)(h) of the OIA. We attach a document table (see
Appendix C) outlining the
correspondence which is withheld and the applicable withholding grounds under the OIA.
The withholding of this information is not outweighed by other public interest
considerations which render it desirable to make that information available. Therefore,
section 9(2)(h) constitutes a good reason for withholding this information under the OIA.
Page 9 of 9
Access to the Ombudsman
If you are dissatisfied with the Department’s decision on your request for information, you
have the right, under section 28 of the OIA, to make a complaint to the Office of the
Ombudsman. The Office of the Ombudsman can be contacted by phone on 0800 802 602,
via post at PO Box 10152 Wellington, or via email to
[email address].
Ngā mihi
Marty Greentree
Manager Investigations
Page 9 of 9
Appendix A
Document number
Title
Date
OIA Comments
Document 1
Document: DIA job enquiry sheet
12/02/2018
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Document 2
Document: DIA job enquiry sheet
8/03/2018
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 3
Document: Outcomes & Advisory Board report
2/05/2018
Released with some
regarding investigation
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 4
Document: Document: Outcomes & Advisory
8/05/2018
Withheld in full under
Board action points and minutes
section 9(h) of the OIA
and out of scope
Document 5
Transcript: Paul Barrett transcript
8/08/2018
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Document 6
Email: Correspondence from gaming trust
21/08/2018
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 7
Transcript: Defendant transcript
23/08/2018
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 8
Email: Email correspondence from Morgan
25/08/2018
Released with some
Barrett’s wife (using Morgan Barrett email
information withheld
address) to Marty Greentree
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Document 9
Email: Further email correspondence from
27/08/2018
Released with some
Morgan Barrett’s wife (using Morgan Barrett
information withheld
email address) to Marty Greentree
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Document 10
Document: Formal statement and victim impact
5/08/2020
Released with some
statement for [named person]
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 11
Document: Memorandum to Gambling
10/08/2020
Released with some
Operations Advisory Board advising of outcomes
information withheld
from prosecution
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Page 9 of 9
Document 12
Document: Formal statement for Charles Wang
10/08/2020
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 13
Document: Formal statement for Daniel Dominey 11/08/2020
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 14
Document: Statement of Witness for [named
19/08/2020
Released with some
person]
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 15
Document: Formal statement for Paul Barrett
31/08/2020
Released in full
Document 16
Email: Response to an OIA request made by
12/05/2021
Released with some
Marty Greentree
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 17
Document: Formal statement for Diana Kim
20/05/2021
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 18
Document: Formal statement for [named person] 20/05/2021
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 19
Document: Summary of Facts for DIA v [named
28/05/2021
Released with some
person] prosecution case
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 20
Document: Formal statement for Rochell Brown
2/06/2021
Released with some
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 21
Document: Formal statement for Marty
11/06/2021
Released with some
Greentree
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
and 18(c)(i) of the OIA
Document 22
Email: Correspondence regarding investigation
12/07/2018 –
Withheld in full under
13/07/2018
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 23
Email: Internal email exchange between
27/07/2018 –
Released with some
Departmental staff
02/08/2018
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Page 9 of 9
Appendix B
Document number
Title
Date
OIA Comments
Document 1
Briefing: Internal Affairs briefing to the Minister
22/11/2021
Released with some
of Internal Affairs regarding gambling report
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA
Document 2
Document: Extracts of updates and
02/04/2019 –
Released with some
Departmental Official Information Act requests
01/09/2021
information withheld
regarding the case sent to the Minister of
under section 9(2)(a)
Internal Affairs
of the OIA
Document 3
Email: Email exchange on ministerial request and
17/11/2020 –
Released with some
brief on case (1 attachment)
20/11/2020
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA. Some
information is also
withheld as out of
scope
Document 4
Attachment: Email to DIA staff advising on trial
7/09/2020
Released with some
date
information withheld
under section 9(2)(a)
of the OIA. Some
information is also
withheld as out of
scope
Appendix C
Document number
Title
Date
OIA Comments
Document 1
Email from Fee Langstone to DIA requesting for
Withheld in full under
further information (1 attachment)
17/04/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 2
Email from Fee Langstone attaching documents
Withheld in full under
(3 attachments)
8/05/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 3
Email from Fee Langstone acknowledging receipt
Withheld in full under
of emails and documents
9/05/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 4
Withheld in full under
Cover email from Fee Langstone to DIA
25/06/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 5
Email from Fee Langstone to DIA attaching letter
Withheld in full under
and associated documents (5 attachments)
26/07/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 6
Email response from DIA to Fee Langstone
Withheld in full under
confirming counsel acting on matter
9/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 7
Email response from DIA acknowledging receipt
Withheld in full under
of email and letter from Fee Langstone
19/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 8
Email from Fee Langstone to DIA attaching letter
Withheld in full under
(1 attachment)
19/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 9
Email response from Fee Langstone providing
Withheld in full under
update on instructions
11/03/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Page 9 of 9
Document 10
Email exchange between DIA and Fee Langstone
06/03/2020 –
Withheld in full under
on further instructions on case review
09/03/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 11
Email from DIA to Fee Langstone attaching
06/05/2019 –
Withheld in full under
signed memorandum (1 attachment)
07/05/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 12
Email exchange between DIA and Fee Langstone
07/05/2019 –
Withheld in full under
on joint memorandum
08/05/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 13
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
14/05/2020 –
Withheld in full under
confirming availability of witnesses
02/06/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 14
Email from Fee Langstone attaching joint
14/05/2020 –
Withheld in full under
memorandums (2 attachments)
02/06/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 15
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
14/05/2020 –
Withheld in full under
confirming availability of witnesses
29/05/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 16
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
14/05/2020 –
Withheld in full under
addressing matters ahead of pretrial
29/05/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 17
Email response from Fee Langstone to DIA
17/04/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding preference for request of disclosure
02/05/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 18
Email from DIA forwarding disclosure pack and
Withheld in full under
summons to another member of Fee Langstone
17/04/2019 –
section 9(h) of the OIA
(2 attachments)
18/04/2019
Document 19
Email from DIA to Fee Langstone attaching
17/04/2019 –
Withheld in full under
disclosure pack and summons (2 attachments)
18/04/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 20
Email response from DIA to Fee Langstone
19/09/2019 –
Withheld in full under
providing clarification on position
20/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 21
Email from Fee Langstone acknowledging
19/09/2019 –
Withheld in full under
response on DIA position
20/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 22
Email from Fee Langstone advising DIA on an
Withheld in full under
amendment made to the memorandum (1
20/12/2019 –
section 9(h) of the OIA
attachment)
06/03/2020
Document 23
Email from Fee Langstone to DIA attaching draft
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
joint memorandum (1 attachment)
06/03/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 24
Email exchange between DIA and Fee Langstone
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding draft media statement (1 attachment)
11/03/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 25
Email exchange between Dia and Fee Langstone
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding position on revised media statement
12/03/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 26
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding resolution on matters
15/01/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 27
Email from Fee Langstone attaching joint
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
memorandum (1 attachment)
15/01/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 28
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
20/12/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding proposal of DIA media statement
18/02/2020
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 29
Email from Fee Langstone to DIA attaching joint
25/06/2019 –
Withheld in full under
memorandum (1 attachment)
01/07/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 30
Email exchange between DIA and Fee Langstone
25/06/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding joint memorandum
02/07/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Page 9 of 9
Document 31
Email from Fee Langstone acknowledging
25/06/2019 –
Withheld in full under
response from DIA looking into queries
26/06/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 32
Email from DIA attachment documents in
25/06/2019 –
Withheld in full under
response to Fee Langstone letter (7 attachments)
28/06/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 33
Email response from DIA to Fee Langstone
Withheld in full under
acknowledging receipt of letter and associated
26/07/2019 –
section 9(h) of the OIA
documents
29/09/2019
Document 34
Email response from DIA to Fee Langstone
Withheld in full under
advising review of letter and documents to be
26/07/2019 –
section 9(h) of the OIA
undertaken
30/07/2019
Document 35
Email from DIA to Fee Langstone attaching joint
26/07/2019 –
Withheld in full under
memorandum (1 attachment)
31/07/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 36
Email response from DIA to Fee Langstone
28/08/2019 –
Withheld in full under
attaching signed memorandum (1 attachment)
09/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 37
Email exchange between DIA and Fee Langstone
28/08/2019 –
Withheld in full under
regarding finalising of documents
09/09/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Document 38
Email exchange between Fee Langstone and DIA
30/09/2019 –
Withheld in full under
on the filing of information and instructions
08/10/2019
section 9(h) of the OIA
Page 9 of 9