11 October 2019
45 Pipitea St
PO Box 805
Wellington 6140
dukeofurl
Phone +64 4 495 7200
Fax +64 4 495 7222
via email: fyi-request-11024-
Website dia.govt.nz
[email address]
Dear dukeofurl
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request dated 21 August 2019 (ref OIA19200195)
Thank you for your OIA request, which was transferred to the Department of Internal Affairs
(the “Department”) by the Auckland Council.
Your request
You requested to be provided with “…the full application and the full decision for the gaming
machines (not horse racing) for the TAB at this site” (referring to the New Lynn TAB, located
at 3041 Great North Road, New Lynn).
You also asked for information about where the gaming machines were located prior to
installation at the New Lynn TAB.
Licence documents within scope of your request
The Department identified several documents in scope of your request, which are attached
to this letter as a single PDF file. These documents include the application form for the Class
4 gaming licence, the personal information form for the venue manager, the lease
agreement for the premises, the harm minimisation policy, and the Class 4 gaming licence
itself. Also included are various Departmental checklists and documents relating to the
decision to grant the licence.
Information about the gaming machines at TAB New Lynn
The Department can confirm that the gaming machines first licenced to the Racing Industry
Transition Agency (RITA)1 were already located at the venue prior to being relicensed to
RITA.
1 The Racing Industry Transition Agency (RITA) was previously known as the New Zealand Racing Board (NZRB)
and is the corporate society that holds the class 4 venue licences for any TAB venues with class 4 gaming
machines, such as TAB New Lynn.
Principle of availability
The starting point for considering your request is the principle of availability. That is,
information must be made available on request unless there is a good reason for
withholding it.
Withholding grounds applicable under section 9(2) of the OIA
The Department has considered the reasons for withholding information that are subject to
the public interest test, which are listed in section 9(2) of the OIA. The Department considers
that two of the grounds for withholding information as outlined in section 9(2) of the OIA
apply to some of the requested information. These grounds are section 9(2)(a) and section
9(2)(b)(ii) of the OIA. Where information has been withheld under these grounds, it has been
identified in the documents.
Reasoning in support of the application of the above withholding grounds under section
9(2) of the OIA
Several of the documents contain personal information which has been withheld. The
information withheld includes the names, contact details, and other personal information
about several identifiable individuals. It is necessary to withhold this information under
section 9(2)(a) of the OIA in order to protect the privacy of the individuals concerned.
The Department is also withholding some information in the documents under section
9(2)(b)(ii). The information withheld includes details of a lease agreement between two
parties. It is necessary to withhold this information to as it would be likely unreasonably to
prejudice the commercial position of the parties who are the subject of the information.
Balancing exercise required by section 9(1) of the OIA
Section 9(1) requires the Department to undertake a balancing exercise and decide whether
the need to withhold information under section 9(2) of the OIA (as identified in the
documents attached) is outweighed by other public interest considerations that support
disclosure of the information.
The Department notes that there is a public interest in disclosure of the information
redacted under section 9(2) of the OIA (as described in this letter) on the basis that it will
illuminate administrative decision-making processes relating to granting the class 4 licence
to the New Lynn TAB. The Department has carefully considered this public interest
consideration when undertaking the balancing exercise required by the OIA (as described
above).
In this case, the Department believes that the public interest in favour of disclosure of the
redacted information does
not outweigh the need to withhold the redacted information for
the reasons set out in section 9(2) of the OIA (and as described in this letter). Therefore,
sections 9(2)(a) and 9(2)(b)(ii) provide good reasons for withholding the redacted
information.
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Recourse to the Ombudsman
If you are dissatisfied with the Department’s decision on your request for information, you
have the right, under section 28 of the OIA, to make a complaint to the Office of the
Ombudsman. The Office of the Ombudsman can be contacted by phone on 0800 802 602,
via post at PO Box 10152 Wellington or via email to [email address].
Yours sincerely
Charlotte Stanley
Deputy Director Operations
Regulatory System Gambling
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