Almost 18 months after the Ministry of Justice provided its advice to the Minister of Justice on whether there should be a review of the Official Information Act, the advice has finally been made available. So too has the Ministry’s summary of the submissions it received.
Neither document has been proactively published by the Ministry of Justice, but have been disclosed in response to an Official Information Act request made by Nikki Macdonald of Stuff.
I’m still analysing the documents, but I have uploaded them here so others can see them, which will inform discussion of the Ministry’s advice and analysis, and the current Minister’s decision not to proceed with the recommended review. There’s a lot to dig in to, both good and bad.
- 22 Feb 2019 – Aide memoire to Minister of Justice on ‘targeted engagement’ (public consultation in fact) on the merits of a review of the Official Information Act
- 27 September 2019 – Briefing to Minister of Justice on the results of the public consultation and next steps
- September 2019 – Summary of submissions to the consultation on the Official Information Act 1982
If you would like to read the submissions to the Ministry of Justice, and its notes of interviews with selected experts, these are available from the 3 August 2020 reply from the Ministry to my OIA request, on the FYI.org.nz website.