31 October 2022
Ministerial Services
45 Pipitea St, Thorndon
PO Box 805, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
Phone +64 4 495 7200
Website: www
.dia.govt.nz
Craig Innes
[FYI request #20797 email]
Dear Craig Innes
Request for information (OIA 2223-0291)
Thank you for your request for information dated 8 October 2022 made under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act) to the Department of Internal Affairs (the Department).
You requested:
On 18 January 2022 a request for information relating to the issues of workplace bullying and
sexual harassment at the Ministry of Justice was made under the Official Information Act 1982
to Kris Faafoi. The request for the information was refused.
After discussion with the Office of the Ombudsman, a fresh set of requests is hereby being
made.
This is a request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 from the following
agencies:
The Ministry of Justice
The Office of the Minister of Justice
Department of Internal Affairs
The Office of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
The information requested is all information relating to the issue of workplace bullying and
sexual harassment occurring within the Waitangi Tribunal Unit (the body within the Ministry of
Justice that provides administrative and support services to the Waitangi Tribunal -not the
Waitangi Tribunal itself), since 2017.
This request includes all the papers or documents relating to each respective Minister of Justice
and Associate Minister of Justice since 2017.
The information requested is all information relating to the issue of workplace bullying
and sexual harassment occurring within the Waitangi Tribunal Unit (the body within
the Ministry of Justice that provides administrative and support services to the
Waitangi Tribunal -not the Waitangi Tribunal itself), since 2017.
This request includes all the papers or documents relating to each respective Minister
of Justice and Associate Minister of Justice since 2017.
Response to your request
Interpretation of request
Our interpretation of your request to the Department is based on the Ombudsman’s
determination of June 2016 that:
• the Department, which provides Ministerial Services, is deemed to be the agency to
hold records of former Ministers of the Crown [Case numbers 363 632, 403092 refer]
• the Department would only hold emails of former Ministers made in their official
capacity. Emails made by the Ministers in their personal, constituency or political
party capacity are not applicable as the Department’s functions are limited to the
provision of ministerial email services.
The Department has therefore interpreted the scope of your information request to be only
the email records of former Justice Ministers Hon Andrew Little and Hon Kris Faafoi, and the
email records of former Associate Justice Minister Hon Willie Jackson relating to workplace
bullying and sexual harassment within the Waitangi Tribunal unit.
Process for identifying official information
As referenced above, former Ministers’ email correspondence is the only record available for
retrieval by the Department. Email correspondence of former Ministers is stored on the
Parliamentary Server maintained by the Parliamentary Service. Since November 2011, the
Parliamentary Service has provided ICT service to Ministers and their offices on behalf of the
Department.
For your information, the following outlines the process for searching for the information
requested:
• The Department asks the Parliamentary Service to perform a search for email
correspondence to or from Hon Little, Hon Faafoi and Hon Jackson as specified in
your request.
• Once the Parliamentary Service has identified any information that may fall within
the scope of your request, the Department will write to Hon Little, Hon Faafoi and
Hon Jackson to advise them of your information request, and to give them the
opportunity to review the identified information. This is required to identify any
material within the scope of your request that may constitute official information.
• Hon Little, Hon Faafoi and Hon Jackson may themselves review the identified
information or request the Parliamentary Service to complete this step on their
behalf.
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• Once any emails have been confirmed as official information, they would be provided
by Parliamentary Service to the Department for consideration of release under the Act.
Extension of time limit of response
Due to the large volume of information to be searched and reviewed and consultation
required, it is not possible to respond to your request within the 20 working day time limit
set out in the Act.
As such, the Department has extended its response timeframe by 60 working days to 20
February 2023 under section 15(A) of the Act:
(1) Where a request in accordance with section 12 is made or transferred to a
department or an interdepartmental venture or a Minister of the Crown or an
organisation, the chief executive of that department or board of that venture or an
officer or employee of that department or venture authorised by that chief executive
or board or that Minister of the Crown or that organisation may extend the time limit
set out in section 14 or 15(1) in respect of the request if -
(a) the request is for a large quantity of official information or necessitates a
search through a large quantity of information and meeting the original time
limit would unnecessarily interfere with the operations of the department or
the venture or the Minster of the Crown or the organisation; or
(b) consultations necessary to make a decision on the request are such that a
proper response to the request cannot be reasonably be made within the
original time limit.
This time extension is standard for such requests for former Ministers’ records, we will
however endeavour to provide a decision on your request to you as soon as practicable.
As part of this process, we may also look to respond to your request in stages following
consultation with the named Ministers.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
or freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely
Briget Ridden
General Manager – Ministerial Services
Te Haumi – Enterprise Partnerships
Te Tari Taiwhenua – The Department of Internal Affairs
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