Dear Department of Internal Affairs,

Thankyou for your response to my recent request for information on Ministerial Advisers in the office of Steven Joyce. I would like to request the following information under the Official Information Act 1982:

* Any policy on the acceptance of gifts and hospitality by Ministerial advisers.
* A list of the gifts and hospitality received by each Ministerial Adviser employed in the office of Steven Joyce over the past year. If you have an existing register, then I'd like a copy of it. If not, then I'd like you to compile one for me, showing all offers of gifts or hospitality valued at over $50, and in each case, the value of the offered gift, who it was offered to (obviously you should anonymise this to protect personal privacy; identifying them by job title is OK), whether it was accepted, and the business rationale for such acceptance (this is Treasury's scheme, and it seems appropriate for use here).

While there are privacy issues here, there is also a substantial public interest in disclosure. The Ombudsman has previously ruled in favour of disclosure of gift information for senior public servants below the Chief Executive level (e.g. Treasury), and I have no doubt they would make a similar ruling in the case of Ministerial Advisers.

I understand that this request may be more closely connected with the Minister's office rather than DIA, and so it may be transferred there.

I would prefer to receive an electronic response. Queries about this request will be automatically forwarded to me by the fyi.org.nz website.

With regards to s12 of the OIA, I am an NZ citizen and in NZ.

Yours faithfully,

Alex Harris