Dear correspondent

On behalf of Hon James Shaw, thank you for your email. Please consider
this email as an acknowledgement.

While the Minister considers all correspondence to be important and all
messages are carefully read and considered, it is not possible to provide
a personal response to every email which is received.

Where the Minister has portfolio responsibility for the issues that you
have raised, your correspondence will be considered and responded to where
appropriate.

Thank you for taking the time to write.

Regards

Office of Hon James Shaw

Please note information about meetings related to the Ministers’
portfolios will be proactively released (this does not include personal or
constituency matters). For each meeting in scope, the summary would list:
date, time (start and finish), brief description, location, who the
meeting was with, and the portfolio. If you attend a meeting with the
Minister on behalf of an organisation, the name of the organisation will
be released. If you are a senior staff member at an organisation, or meet
with the Minister in your personal capacity, your name may also be
released. The location of the meeting will be released, unless it is a
private residence. The proactive release will be consistent with the
provisions in the Official Information Act, including privacy
considerations. Under the Privacy Act 1993 you have the right to ask for a
copy of any personal information we hold about you, and to ask for it to
be corrected if you think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask for a copy of
your information, or to have it corrected, or are concerned about the
release of your information in the meeting disclosure, please contact the
sender. You can read more about the proactive release policy at
[1]http://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Release...

 

 

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References

Visible links
1. http://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Release...

Dear Gus,

I am writing to acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act request (OIA220) to Hon James Shaw dated 27 April 2019, requesting:

1. Have you or any members of the Green Party you co-lead - for instance, Golriz Ghahraman, who is fronting the Green's hate speech campaign - met with Pierre Omidyar to discuss the charged issue of hate speech or online conduct since the 2017 general election?

2. Have you or any members of the Green Party you co-lead - for instance, Golriz Ghahraman who is fronting the Green's hate campaign - met with a representative or employee of, or consultant for, the Silicon Valley - based Ebay founder Pierre Omidyar, or any of the organizations funded by him in New Zealand or overseas, to discuss the charged issue of hate speech or online conduct, since the 2017 general election?

3. Are you or any other Green Party members of the New Zealand House of Representatives aware of any consultations, or funding or support initiatives for Green Party campaigns or parallel campaigns that have an association of any kind with Pierre Omidyar, the Omidyar Network, or any other body funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Pierre Omidyar?

We have decided to refuse your request under section 2 of the Official Information Act. The Ombudsman website provides advice about what can be asked for when requesting official information from an agency or Minister and what is covered by the Act. Under the section 'Making official information act requests' (page 9), the guide states that official information does not include information held by a Minister:

- in their private capacity;
- in their capacity as an MP (electorate information); or
- in their capacity as a member of a political party (caucus information).

However, we can confirm that Hon James Shaw has not met Pierre Omidyar, the Omidyar Network, or any other body funded by Silicon Valley billionaire Pierre Omidyar since the 2017 general election. We have also asked the office of Golriz Ghahraman MP to follow-up with any further information as appropriate.

You have the right to seek an investigation and review of this decision. Information about how to make a complaint is available at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.

If you require any further assistance from our ministerial office, now or in the future, please don't hesitate to let me know.

Kind regards,

Dave Butler-Peck | Private Secretary (Executive Support)
Office of Hon James Shaw | Green Party Co-leader | Minister for Climate Change | Minister of Statistics | Associate Minister of Finance
Level 7, Bowen House, Parliament Buildings, 80 Lambton Quay | Private Bag 18041 | Wellington 6160 | New Zealand
P: 04 817 8725
M: 021 861 303
E: [email address]

The information contained in this email message is intended only for the addressee. It may be legally privileged. If you are not the intended recipient you must not use, disclose, copy or distribute this message or the information in it as this may be unlawful. If you have received this message in error, please email or telephone the sender immediately.

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