2 December 2024
Anna Wilson
[FYI request #29143 email]
Ref: OIA 195 2024-25
Dear Anna
Official Information Act request: Ministerial diaries in relation to international travel
Thank you for your email dated 11 November 2024 to the Department of Prime Minister and
Cabinet, which was subsequently transferred to this office on 14 November 2024. You requested:
“I am getting in touch with a question about the publication of Ministerial diaries on the Beehive
website. In the previous term of Government, these Ministerial diaries accounted for all
activities undertaken by Ministers - including their overseas travel. Domestic activities and
international activities were published in the same level of detail which was very useful. In this
current term of Government, I have noticed that Ministerial diaries now only list "Overseas
Travel" with an indication of the days overseas and there is no further detail provided about
what meetings or engagements the Minister undertook. I made an OIA request for this
information to Minister McClay's office who pointed me to the proactive release of Cabinet
papers reporting back on the Minister's overseas travel. While these Cabinet papers include
details of the people that the Minister met with while overseas, they do not show the date of
these meetings, the time of these meetings, the duration of these meetings, or which officials or
other parties were in attendance at these meetings. In addition, these Cabinet papers have to
go through a lengthy proactive release process in contrast to the Ministerial diaries which are
often uploaded quite soon after the conclusion of each month. I wanted to ask whether you
knew why this change had been made and whether Ministers are expected to account for their
domestic and international engagements in a consistent way? Is this governed by a standing
order or a speaker's ruling. You can see the contrast in available information if you look through
the published Ministerial diaries of people like the Foreign Affairs Minister or the Trade Minister
in this Government and then the last few Government.
I can advise that the convention of proactively releasing summarised Ministerial diaries began in
2018. Prior to that, Ministers did not collate or proactively release monthly summaries of their diaries.
The release process is managed by each Minister’s office. The relevant details are collated as part
of diary management and each month a summary of the meeting information in the Ministerial diary
link to page 2
is proactively released on the Beehive websit
e1. It is the individual Minister’s responsibility to release
their dairies, with the assistance of their office staff.
I can confirm that there has been no standing order or ruling regarding information about international
travel included in the published diaries. It should be noted that Ministers overseas itineraries are a
work in progress and are often subject to multiple last minute changes. The amount of detail that is
included in a published diary are a best effort endeavour, based on guidelines, by the relevant
Minister and their office.
As you note, more information about Ministers international travel is available in proactively released
Cabinet papers. While there may be a delay in the release of this information these Cabinet papers
generally include more detail about the purpose of the travel than would be available in the diaries.
I hope this has answered your question. You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate
and review my response under section 28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
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Ministerial diaries full disclaimer | Beehive.govt.nz
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