Dear Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade,

This is a request for information, made under the provisions of ss 4 and 5 of the Official Information Act 1982 (“the Act”). I therefore would like the following information;

I am a LLB (Hons) student doing academic research in the area of international investment law and I want access to the Transpacific Partnership Agreement (TPP). Any information I receive will be held for research purposes only and my dissertation will not be released until at least late December.

1. In light of the decision of Kelsey v Minister of Trade [2015] NZHC 2497, CIV-2015-485-000583 I request access to the text of final preamble to ascertain the object and purpose of the TPP according to Vienna Convention on the Laws of Treaties Article 31.
2. If request 1 is not possible I request access to the draft preamble of the TPP for the same academic research purpose.
3. If you are unable to provide the text of the draft preamble or the text of the final preamble of the TPP I request any other information relevant to discerning the object and purpose of the TPP agreement. This may include statements by the Minister, memos and other such documents.

Please CONFIRM receipt of this email to prevent unnecessary follow-up emails and extensions being requested.
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As required by s12(1) of the Act, I am a New Zealand citizen. I will provide confirmation of this, if required. However, since all of our correspondence will be published on the FYI.org.nz site, I will only do so over the phone or email, with which you provide. This would only be for the purpose of citizenship confirmation, and nothing further related to this request.

As required by s12(3) of the Act, I shall provide reason(s) why this request should be treated as URGENT. The questions above raise important issues of accountability of the Government, its departments and agents. Any and all information provided as a result of this request could and may be published either by the writer online to a wide audience or passed onto media outlets for publication so that the public can be kept informed on important issues of transparency.

As required by s13(c) of the Act, if this request “has not been made … to the appropriate department or Minister of the Crown or organisation or local authority”, it is your duty to give reasonable assistance to me to direct my request to the appropriate department or Minister of the Crown or organisation or local authority.

Further to the above statutory requirement, under s14 of the Act, if the information I seek is either not held or you believe it is more closely connected with another department or Minister of the Crown or organisation, or of a local authority you shall promptly, and in any case not later than 10 working days after the day on which the request is received, transfer the request to the other department or Minister of the Crown or organisation, or to that local authority, AND inform me accordingly.

As required under s15A of the Act, if you believe that a time extension is warranted for this request, you must under ss15A(2),(3) and (4) give notice to me of this extension within 20 working days after the day on which my request was received. In that notice, you should state; the period of the extension, give reasons for the extension and remind me of my right to complain to the Ombudsman under s28(3). Finally, the extension must be for a reasonable time, having regards to the circumstances.

As required by s18B of the Act, you must consider consulting me before refusing my request under the provisions of ss18(e) and (f) which relate to a document not being able to be found or existing or where substantial collation and research would be required for my current request.

As required by s19(a)(i), you must provide reasons if you refuse any parts of this request.

I will, if required, complain to the Ombudsman, as is my right under s28(3) of the Act, if any of the above statutory requirements on you are not complied with. Further to this, if your reply is not “as soon as reasonably practicable, and in any case not later than 20 working days after the day on which the request is received” as required under s15(1) of the Act, I will also complain to the Ombudsman.

This request is made through the site FYI.org.nz. All correspondence will be automatically forwarded to me through the site and published online immediately. I require, where appropriate, all electronic copies of all documents in your response. For more information on how the site works, please visit www.fyi.org.nz/help/about.

Yours faithfully,

Charles Hulley