Vice Chancellor's Calendar
J James made this Official Information request to Victoria University of Wellington
The request was refused by Victoria University of Wellington.
From: J James
Dear Victoria University of Wellington,
I request a copy of the Vice Chancellor's calendar for the next three months, ending November 30th.
Yours faithfully,
J James
From: OIA Requests
Victoria University of Wellington
Dear J James.
I acknowledge receipt of your request made under the official Information Act 1982.
I advise that a decision will be made on your request within 20 working days.
Thank you,
Simon Bar
Simon Barr
Legal Counsel
Victoria University of Wellington
Phone: +64-4-463 6703
Mobile: +64-022 563 6703
Room 214, Hunter Building
Gate 2, Kelburn Parade
PO Box 600
Wellington 6140
This email and any attachments are confidential and may be subject to legal professional privilege. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose or use the contents in any way. Please notify me immediately if you have received this email in error and then delete it
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From: Michelle Clarke (HR)
Victoria University of Wellington
Dear Mr James
Please find attached a letter from the Director, HR in response to your
request for information under the Official Information Act.
Kind regards
Michelle Clarke (BA, Dip Bus Admin)
EA to Annemarie de Castro, Director, Human Resources
Phone: +64 4 463 5272
Email: [1][email address]
Victoria University of Wellington
Room 408, Level4, Hunter Building, Gate 2, Kelburn Parade
PO Box 600, Wellington 6140, New Zealand
This email contains information from Victoria University and may be
confidential or privileged. If you are not the intended recipient or this
email has been sent to you in error, please notify the sender immediately
and destroy any copies of this email.
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J James left an annotation ()
Hi Luke,
I agree, their use of 18(e) is very problematic and calls into light their entire decision to refuse this information.
I have lodged a complaint with the Ombudsmen.
Luke C left an annotation ()
After posting my response I realised I commented on the Chancellor rather than vice-chancellor.
It will be interesting to see what the Ombudsman's initial opinion is; it just may take several months for us to know that!
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- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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Luke C left an annotation ()
it is quite odd that they relied on 18(e) (document does not exist) when it would appear from their response that it does exist; they just don't want to give it to you. Their reliance on 18(e) brings into question the other sections of the Act that they also have relied on. For example 9(2)(b)(i), which aims to protect the commercial position of a person. One wonders why they needed to withhold the _entire_ diary to protect that commercial position. And whose commercial position they are trying to protect, and how it would be prejudiced by releasing the entire calendar.
The fact that there is a lot of personal information in the diary does not in itself mean the information in it cannot be released. The information that relates to the Chancellor in his/her official capacity is subject to the Act, but personal information would unlikely be subject, for example lunch with his/her wife.
The fact that the information is "confidential", is not itself, a good reason, under the Act, to withhold the information.
There are a whole lot of ways that they could have provided the information to you while mitigating any concerns. For example, deletions, conditions, or simply narrowing the request down to specific types of meetings. They did not need to refuse the request outright as they have done.
It may have helped to provide some explanation as to why you wanted this information, but even then, I would imagine they would still deny it to you. What would be useful to them, and the public, is what public interest considerations there are that would favour disclosure. http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/resou...
The Chancellor is the chairman of the university's governing body of Victoria University. It is a senior role in the structure of the university and is pivotal in the strategy, policy, and planning of the university. As such, the position would be subject to a greater level of scrutiny than other positions. More information is at http://www.victoria.ac.nz/about/governan...
From reading between the lines in their response, I suspect they simply do not want to provide this information to you.
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