Complaint to the Ombudsman:

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Tena koe,

I made a complaint to the secretary of the Department of Internal Affairs Paul James on 18 June 2024. The complaint was about the failure to provide access to public records as required by s.47 of the Public Records Act 2005. These complaints were made after the recommendation to do so from you and your office:

Where an agency is subject to the Ombudsmen Act 1975 (OA), an Ombudsman may investigate a
complaint about the acts or decisions of that agency under the OA, however, a complainant is
generally expected to have exhausted all other reasonably available ways of resolving the matter
before the Ombudsman would consider investigating. This includes formally complaining to the
chief executive of the agency, who is often in a position to resolve the matter or at least provide
an explanation.

It is unclear whether you have made a formal complaint to DIA about your concerns about the
Collection Search system itself. If you have not already, you can escalate the matter to the Chief
Executive of DIA, Paul James. You can do so by writing to complaints@dia.govt.nz, and addressing
your concerns to Mr James.

I have not received an acknowledgment of the receipt of the complaint, nor have I received a response. I therefore ask that you investigate the failure of the secretary and the department to meet their obligations under the Public Records Act 2005.

Naku noa, na,

Craig Innes.

Tena koe Paul James (cc Kathryn and Brad Patterson)
I made the following communication on 18 June 2024.  Was this complaint put to you?  If so, why did you not respond to it?
If the complaint was not received, or if you did receive it and chose not to respond to it, I wish to raise the complaint with you now.
Please find a letter of support from the former Chief Archivist Kathryn Patterson and Brad Patterson, former president, Archives and Records Association.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1SNjw8Qa...

******************************From: Craig Innes

June 18, 2024Attention The Secretary, Paul JamesThis is a complaint about the failure of Archives New Zealand to meet its obligations under s.47 of the Public Records Act 2005.Archives New Zealand is obliged by law to provide access to public records. Since the adoption of Collections Search, Archives New Zealand has provided a means of fully
discovering and accessing the public records it holds.I have over twenty years experience of researching historical records. In my opinion the Collections Search system is not fit for purpose. Until access equivalent to that formerly provided by the Archway system is restored I will be including the following text in any historical research filed with a Court:***********************************
Statement on the subject of access to records
In February 2022, Archives New Zealand replaced the Archway database search system with a system called Collections Search. The search system is, in the opinion of this author, not fit for purpose. Historian Dr Vincent O’Malley has described the adoption of the system as an ‘unmitigated disaster’. Complaints have been made about access to the historical public records by historians, lawyers and agencies since the system was introduced.The author wishes to clearly state that it is not possible to determine with certainty that all
public historical records held by Archives New Zealand are discoverable in the Collections Search database. The author therefore warns readers that it cannot be certain that records that were formerly accessible and discoverable that are relevant to this research report were identified and taken into account in the writing of this report.
************************************Craig Innes