Ms Reynolds
By email
23 July 2020
LGOIMA Request received 27 May 2020
Kia ora Ms Reynolds
Thank you for your follow up email dated 2 July 2020, in which you ask a series of questions relating
to ZEALANDIA's response to your request under the Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act 1987 ("
Act") dated 27 May 2020 ("
original request"). We address these matters
below.
Aggregation of information
I understand that Wellington Zoo (in responding to your original request) have provided more
detailed information than that provided by ZEALANDIA. While I am unable to comment on
Wellington Zoo's decision-making in relation to your original request, I note (as you have
acknowledged in your email of 2 July 2020) that your request to ZEALANDIA differed significantly in
that you asked ZEALANDIA to provide information relating to the area of business and position of
the relevant staff members.
As explained in our response of 22 June 2020, given the scope of the information requested (ie
including area of business and position), we determined it was necessary to release the information
in an aggregated form to protect the privacy of our staff members. For completeness, we note that
ZEALANDIA is entitled to provide a summary of the information requested where interests protected
by section 7 of the Act may be prejudiced by release, and ZEALANDIA is not required to consult with
requesters except in certain prescribed circumstances.
That said, we thank you for your clarification that you no longer require the information relating to
the area of business or position of the relevant staff members. On that basis, acknowledging that
there is a lower risk of identification of our staff members if no reference is made to the area of
business in which they work or the position they hold, we are happy to release the following tables
of information that we hope you find useful. These tables reflect the approach taken by Wellington
Zoo, as (based on your latest correspondence) we understand you were comfortable with that
approach. Similar to Wellington Zoo (and reflecting Ombudsman guidance) we have used bands for
some limited information, to help protect the privacy of our staff in accordance with section 7(2)(a)
of the Act. We do not consider that the public interest weighs in favour of releasing specific details
in respect of each staff member (including for example their specific salary) in this instance.
Employment as at 16 March 2020
In relation to your comments regarding employment dates, we note that the original request asked
for information relating to staff employed as at 16 March 2020. A number of ZEALANDIA's staff are
casual workers, who are only "employed" for the period in which they are engaged to work (as a
matter of law). There is otherwise no ongoing employment relationship. Accordingly, we have used
information from the fortnight payroll ending the 21 March 2020 as the 16 March 2020 falls within
this pay period (such that the casual staff can be said to have been employed at that time).
Casual staff who did not work in the fortnight payroll ending the 21 March 2020 have been excluded
from our response, as they were not employed by ZEALANDIA as at 16 March 2020. However, to the
extent you are seeking information relating to casual staff who did not work in this fortnight (but
have otherwise recently worked on a casual basis with ZEALANDIA), we invite you to clarify the
scope of your request. For example, we would be happy to provide you with information relating to
those casual staff members who worked at ZEALANDIA in the three months prior to 16 March 2020
(but who have otherwise been excluded from our response to date as they were not employed as at
16 March 2020). Please let us know how we can assist.
Date of application
Finally, we apologise for erroneously leaving out the date on which the subsidy was applied for. This
has now been provided in the attached table, in respect of each employee.
In summary, Karori Sanctuary Trust has received $365,361.60 from the wage subsidy for 56 staff
across 3 individual claims made on the 23 March 2020, 7 April 2020 and 15 May 2020.
Right of review
If you disagree with my decision you have the right, under section 27(3) of the Act, to ask the
Ombudsman to review and investigate my decision. Further information is available on the
Ombudsman w
ebsite, www.ombudsman.parliament.nz. Please contact me if you need any further information.
Yours,
Paul Atkins
ZEALANDIA Chief Executive