12 December 2023  
 
John Luke 
By email to: [FYI request #24821 email] 
 
Dear Mr Luke 
 
OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST 2023/109 
 
Thank you for your request for information dated 21 November 2023 on the Election Access Fund 
Panel asking for the following: 
 
“May I request the Election Access Fund Panel meeting minutes from establishment to now. Also, 
how many each members has been paid so far. Each member's current conflict of interest 
declaration.” 
 
In response to your request, we have included the following information: 
1)  Attached to this response, you will find eight meeting minutes for the Election Access Fund 
Applications panel meetings held between the first meeting on 2 November 2022 and the 
most recent meeting on 27 November 2023. 
2)  The table below reflects the payments made to each panel member of the two financial year 
periods up until 12 December 2023. In addition to the payments made to members for Panel 
meetings, a payment of $57.96 for attendance at one Steering Committee meeting on 9 
November 2022 was paid to panel member Jade Farrar.  
Members 
FY2022/23 Total 
FY2023/24 Total 
Total 
Dianne Glenn (Chair) 
$  1,105.40 
$  466.45 
$  1,571.85 
Jade Farrar 
$     637.56 
$  347.76 
$     985.32 
Roberta Watene 
$     453.60 
$  151.20 
$     604.80 
Huhana Hickey 
$     579.60 
$             - 
$     579.60 
 
$ 2,776.16 
$ 965.41 
$  3,741.57 
 
3)  When the Election Access Fund panel was formed, conflicts of interest were considered as 
part of the selection process. The terms of reference for the Panel require any subsequent 
conflicts of interest to be declared at each meeting. This can be seen in the attached 
minutes. Panel members were responsible for declaring any perceived or real conflicts of 
interest, whether financial or non-financial, relating to any individual application or more 
generally. To date there have been no declarations. The conflict of interest risk regarding 
individual applicants is further reduced by using clear criteria for assessing applications, 
which are anonymised prior to sending to panel members. 
Electoral Commission 
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 
Telephone +64 4 495 0030     Fax +64 4 495 0031 
www.vote.nz  |  www.elections.nz 

---

 
In the interests of transparency, we release responses to Official Information Act requests every 
three months. We will publish this response with your personal details redacted. 
You have the right under section 28(3) of the Act to make a complaint to the Ombudsman if you are 
not satisfied with the response to your request.  Information about how to do this is available at 
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by phoning 0800 802 602.  
 
Yours sincerely  
 
 
Leigh Deuchars 
Deputy Chief Executive, Strategy Governance & Development 
Electoral Commission 
Level 4, 34-42 Manners Street, PO Box 3220, Wellington 6140, New Zealand 
Telephone +64 4 495 0030     Fax +64 4 495 0031 
www.vote.nz  |  www.elections.nz 

---