Official Information Act response Mijail Linares 2223 1344.pdf

4 April 2023

Ref:  DOIA 2223-1344

Mijail Linares
[FYI request #21452 email]

Dear Mijail Linares

Thank you for your email of 19 December 2022 to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment
(MBIE) requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), the following information:

1.  All official documents signed by any member of the Ministry, as part of the bidding process
to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

2.  Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and New Zealand Football, relating to the submission of the bid to host the
tournament.

3.  Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and the Ministry of Sport, relating to the submission of the bid to host the
tournament.

4.  Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and the office of the Prime Minister, that relate to the submission of the bid to host
the tournament.

5.  Please state the precise amount of financial contributions the New Zealand government will
contribute to this tournament and what is the precise source of it, within the Budget of New
Zealand’s government. If this figure has had any changes from its inception, can you please
describe these changes in chronological order and explain the reasons for the revision?

Please answer the following questions:

1.  As far as the Ministry is aware, who initiated the decision to submit a bid to host the
tournament?

2.  As far as the Ministry is aware, was the decision to enter a bid for the tournament ever
opened to public debate? If not, why? If it was, please describe the extent of this effort?

3.  What members of the Ministry, if any, were involved in drafting the 188 page document
known as the bid book?

Labour, Science and Enterprise
15 Stout Street, PO Box 1473, Wellington 6140 New Zealand
E [email address]

W www.mbie.govt.nz

4.  What were the documents provided by the Ministry, as part of the submission of the bid
book? Wherever possible, please provide of copy of these documents. If that’s not possible,
please state why.

5.  Did New Zealand Major Events commissioned any study related to hosting the tournament?
If so, please provide a copy of it.

On  the  27  January  2023  MBIE  contacted  you  in  an  attempt  to  narrow  the  scope  of  your  request  for
correspondence between MBI, New Zealand Football and Sport New Zealand. You had provided some
additional information to help identify the content you were looking for in relation to searching for the
correspondence. On 3 February 2023, MBIE extended the timeframe to respond to your request to 4 April
2023 due to the scale of the request. Following this we had then contacted you on 10 February to advise
that we were unable to reduce the scale of the request despite considering the additional information
you had provided us to help narrow the scope of the request, therefore, this part of the request would
likely be refused under Section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available
without substantial collation or research.

I have addressed each part of your request as follows:

1.  All official documents signed by any member of the Ministry, as part of the bidding process
to host the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup

Please see the documents enclosed as per the Documents Schedule at the end of this response.

2.  Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and New Zealand Football, relating to the submission of the bid to host the
tournament.

After doing a preliminary search for the email communications that you have requested with the
addition of the information that you provided to narrow the scope of the request on 28 January 2023,
we have found that the correspondence that falls within the scope of your request exceeds 3500 pages.
This would take a substantial amount of time and resources to review and consult on. Therefore, we are
unable to provide you with the information you have requested under section 18(f) of the Act, as the
information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.

3.  Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and the Ministry of Sport, relating to the submission of the bid to host the
tournament.

After doing a preliminary search for the email communications that you have requested with the
addition of the information that you provided to narrow the scope of the request on 28 January 2023,
as per your previous request above, we have found that the correspondence that falls within the scope
of your request also exceeds 3500 pages. In addition to the search for emails between MBIE and New
Zealand Football, this again would take a substantial amount of time and resources to review and
consult on. Therefore, we are unable to provide you with the information you have requested under
section 18(f) of the Act, as the information requested cannot be made available without substantial
collation or research.

4.   Please provide a copy of all email communications, if any, between New Zealand Major
Events and the office of the Prime Minister, that relate to the submission of the bid to host
the tournament.

I can confirm that there was no direct correspondence between MBIE and the Office of the Prime
Minister in relation to the bid to host the tournament. Therefore, this part of your request is refused
under section 18(e) of the Act, as the information requested does not exist or, despite reasonable
efforts to locate it, cannot be found.

5.   Please state the precise amount of financial contributions the New Zealand government
will contribute to this tournament and what is the precise source of it, within the Budget of
New Zealand’s government. If this figure has had any changes from its inception, can you
please describe these changes in chronological order and explain the reasons for the
revision?

Please see the table below which shows the gradual changes in funding alongside their source allocation
and reasoning in relation to the tournament.

Funding Location
Source of funding
Details, reasoning and notes
Total
FIFA MYA (Multi-
Initial FIFA Appropriation as
year appropriation)  of 17 July 2020
Cabinet process
$25,000,000
FIFA MYA
Feb/March 2022 - Fiscally
Neutral Adjustment (FNA) from
Major Events Fund (MEF) to
FIFA MYA
Major Events Fund
To support venue upgrades to
allocation to support venue
enable NZ to host the FIFA
compliance
WWC
$10,000,000
FIFA MYA
Feb/March 2022 (America’s
Cup underspend from AC36
MYA to FIFA MYA)
America's Cup
To support venue upgrades to
infrastructure underspend
enable NZ to host the FIFA
reprioritised for FIFA
Women’s World Cup
$5,000,000
FIFA MYA
September 2022 (FNA Tourism
underspend to FIFA MYA)
To support venue upgrades and
wider Crown activity including
Tourism reprioritisation
leverage and legacy activity
$10,000,000
Total

$50,000,000

To answer your following questions:

1.  As far as the Ministry is aware, who initiated the decision to submit a bid to host the
tournament?

The decision to submit a bid to host the tournament was made by New Zealand Football and ratified by
the New Zealand Football Board.

2.  As far as the Ministry is aware, was the decision to enter a bid for the tournament ever
opened to public debate? If not, why? If it was, please describe the extent of this effort?

The decision to submit a bid sits with New Zealand Football, and it was not opened to public debate.
FIFA only accepts bids for this tournament from member federations, therefore, New Zealand Football
(as the FIFA member federation in New Zealand) is responsible for the decision as well as for any
processes they may choose to follow in making this decision.

3.  What members of the Ministry, if any, were involved in drafting the 188 page document
known as the bid book?

The Manager of Major Events and a Senior Advisor in the New Zealand Major Events team at MBIE were
involved in collating and contributing information from across the government related to the
government-controlled services and support in response to the tournament host requirements outlined
in the FIFA bid file. New Zealand Major Events supported New Zealand Football with articulating the
New Zealand proposal and messaging in the bid book to ensure the content was accurate at the time of
the bid submission.

4.   What were the documents provided by the Ministry, as part of the submission of the
bidbook? Wherever possible, please provide of copy of these documents. If that’s not
possible, please state why.

Ten documents have been identified within scope of your request, as detailed in the below Document
Schedule. Please note that we are refusing your request as far as it relates to one document designated
#12 in the Schedule dated 1 November 2019. This particular correspondence contains advice in which
providing this to you would be contrary to the provisions of the Tax Administration Act 1994. Therefore,
it is refused under section 18(c)(i) of the Act, as making available of the information requested would be
contrary to the provisions of a specified enactment.

5.     Did New Zealand Major Events commissioned any study related to hosting the tournament?
If so, please provide a copy of it.

Please refer to the document designated #11 in the Document Schedule below.  Please note that we
have withheld some information under section 9(2)(j) of the act, to enable a Minister of the Crown or
any public service agency or organisation holding the information to carry on, without prejudice or
disadvantage, negotiations (including commercial and industrial negotiations).

Document schedule
Documents released
#
Date
Description
Correspondence – FIFA WWC 2023_ GOVERNMENT
1
31 October 2019
DECLARATION_EXECUTED
Correspondence – FIFA WWC 2023 - (LEGAL) SUPPORT DOCUMENT
2
31 October 2019
MINISTER TWYFORD_EXECUTED
Correspondence – FIFA WWC 2023_Reserve Bank Letter of
3
5 November 2019
Support_EXECUTED

Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_DPMC_Security Approach in
4
29 October 2019
NZ_EXECUTED
Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_DPMC_Security Letter of
5
29 October 2019
Support_EXECUTED
Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_DPMC_Security Roles of
6
29 October 2019
Government_EXECUTED
Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_Immigration New Zealand Letter of
7
30 October 2019
Support_EXECUTED
Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_Telecommunications and IT Letter
8
30 October 2019
of Support_EXECUTED
Correspondence - FIFA WWC 2023_MEMA and IP Letter of
9
30 October 2019
Support_EXECUTED
10
30 October 2019
Correspondence - FIFA WWC2023_Legal Statement_EXECUTED
11
19 November 2019
Pre-event evaluation of FIFA Women’s World Cup 2023(19 Nov 2019)

Documents withheld in full
#
Date
Description
12
1 November 2019
FIFA WWC 2023 - IR Letter of Support_EXECUTED_FINAL

In terms of the withholding of information under section 9 (1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in the
circumstances, the withholding of this information is not outweighed by other considerations that
render it desirable to make the information available in the public interest.

I trust you will find this information useful.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of my decision to refuse
and/or withhold information in scope from any parts or all of your request, in accordance with section
28(3) of the Act. The relevant details can be found at: www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.

Yours sincerely

Kylie Hawker Green
Manager Major Events
Labour, Science and Enterprise, MBIE