19 November 2024
Tēnā koe James
Official Information Act request
I am writing in response to your email of 11 November 2024, seeking details of
any complaints received by the Ministry regarding complaints about Manurewa
Marae, Te Pati Māori, or Takutai Tarsh Kemp – over an eleven-month period.
I understand that your questions flow from my decision to refuse your request for
communication about this issue under section 18(f) of the Official Information Act
1982 (the Act), on the basis that substantial manual collation would be required
to respond.
Your request is very broad. Initial searches undertaken by the Ministry across
various email accounts identified 4357 emails that may be in scope of your request.
Each of these emails would need to be individually reviewed to identify and collate
any emails that relate to the complaints at issue.
The terms of your request “Manurewa Marae” and “Te Pati Māori” and “Takutai
Tarsh Kemp” do not assist the Ministry in reducing the number of emails that would
need to be reviewed.
A conservative estimate of the time required to manually review and assess each
of these emails is 220 hours. This meets the threshold of substantial manual
collation and would unreasonably interfere with the other functions of the Ministry.
I do not consider that consulting with you would help refine your request to a
manageable number of emails, as other refinement terms are likely to be non-
specific and produce more results which would then need to be reviewed (for
example the terms “complaint” or “personal information”).
I do not consider that fixing a charge would remove the reason for the refusal
either.
It is clear you do not agree with this decision. The Act does not set out a
reconsideration process, but instead establishes a review mechanism for decisions
to refuse requests for official information. As previously explained, it is the
Ombudsman who will review a decision to refuse to official information.
You can seek a review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to make a
complaint is available on their website:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. I consider this letter provides you with a full explanation of the grounds on which
the decision was made, which you are entitled to receive when requested under
section 19 of the Act.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
Once the Public Service Commission concludes its inquiry into allegations that
personal information provided to government agencies was misused by third-party
service providers, and publishes its findings, you may wish to make a new request
for the specific information or documents that you are interested in receiving.
Ngā mihi nui
Magnus O’Neill
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
