link to page 1 link to page 1
15 April 2025
Anna Wilson
[FYI request #30507 email]
Ref: OIA 356-2024-25
Dear Anna,
Official Information Act request: Correspondence on Ministerial Diary Releases
Thank you for your further Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request, received on 24 March
2025 regarding Ministerial diaries. You requested:
•
All correspondence between your staff and other Ministers' staff regarding Ministerial
Diary Releases
•
All correspondence between your staff and other Ministers regarding Ministerial Diary
Releases
•
All correspondence between yourself and other Ministers regarding Ministerial Diary
Releases
The timeframe is from the formation of the Coalition Government until now.
As per Cabinet Minute (CAB-18-MIN-0587
)1 Ministerial diaries are expected to be proactively
released by each Ministerial office on the Beehive websit
e2 within 15 business days of the end of
each calendar month (except for December when the diaries should be published by the 31st of the
following January). I have attached for your information a copy of the
‘Procedure for Proactive
Release of Ministerial Diaries.’ The procedure outlines what meetings should be included in the diary
summary, the level of detail required, and the process for publishing the information, which is in line
with the Cabinet Minute.
As advised in my previous response to you, the relevant Minister and their office decide what will be
published based on the Cabinet Minute and the procedure. There is no one specific way of doing
this and communications about the decisions aren’t centrally recorded in any way that would make
them easily retrievable.
1
https://www.dia.govt.nz/vwluResources/CAB-18-MIN-0587-Minute/$file/CAB-18-MIN-0587-Minute.pdf
2
https://www.beehive.govt.nz/
Occasionally, this office will communicate directly with other Minister’s offices about the release of
their diaries. This might be via phone call with specific offices or the topic might arise in staff meetings
(for example Senior Private Secretary meetings). With the exception of an occasion staff within this
office recall (which is detailed below), no record of the date, detail or type of these communications
is kept in any manner that is clear, certain or established. Therefore, your request for all
communications from the Prime Minister or this office regarding Ministerial Diaries is withheld under
Section 18(g) because the information is not held, and I do not believe it is held by any other Minister
or Agency.
The occasion referred to above was a written parliamentary question about the Prime Minister’s
expectations regarding timeliness of Ministers diaries. This office used the question as an opportunity
to remind Ministers and their offices of the requirement to proactively release the respective diaries
within 15 working days of the end of each month. I have attached the email detailing this for your
information. Some information has been withheld under section 9(2)(a) to protect the privacy of
individuals. As is required by section 9(1) of the Act, I have considered whether the grounds for
withholding the information are outweighed by other considerations. In this instance, I do not
consider that to be the case.
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under section
28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
2
