20 July 2021
Terry Thomas
Dear Terry
16 JUNE 2021: OFFICIAL INFORMATION ACT REQUEST
In your email received 16 June 2021 you requested the fol owing information under the
Official Information Act 1982 (OIA):
I would like all communications, briefings, meeting notes (formal and informal ie those in
staff notebooks or disposable Post it-style note sheets), minutes and text messages from
and to you and/or your staff, including board members, regarding the proposed film They
Are Us sent, received or written in the time period up til 11 June 2021.
Please find all information in relation to your request at
Appendix 1.
When there are earlier draft versions of documents, we have only provided the final version
of that document. If a document has not been finalised and only exists in draft form, we
have provided the draft version.
Information has been redacted where the documents or correspondence contain
information outside the scope of the request or one of the withholding grounds under the
OIA applies:
• Section 9(2)(a): to protect the privacy of natural persons;
• Section 9(2)(b)(ii): to protect information where the making available of the
information would be likely unreasonably to prejudice the commercial position of
the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information;
• Section 9(2)(ba)(i): to protect information which is subject to an obligation of
confidence, where the making available of the information would be likely to
prejudice the supply of similar information, or information from the same source,
and it is in the public interest that such information should continue to be supplied;
and
• Section 9(2)(g)(i): to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free
and frank expression of opinions by or between or to Ministers of the Crown or
members of an organisation or officers and employees of any department or
organisation in the course of their duty.
The fol owing documents have been withheld in ful :
•
Presentation – attached to email sent from Stewart Til to Annabelle Sheehan on 8
May 2019. Withheld under 9(2)(b)(ii) and s9(2)(ba)(i) of the OIA.
•
They Are Us: Draft Script received 4 March 2020. Withheld under 9(2)(b)(ii) and
s9(2)(ba)(i) of the OIA.
•
They Are Us: Draft Script received 9 June 2021. Withheld under 9(2)(b)(ii) and
s9(2)(ba)(i) of the OIA.
The New Zealand Film Commission (NZFC) has not provided any assessment of, or feedback
on, either of the two draft screenplays it has received from the
They Are Us producing team.
Whilst there has been engagement with the producing team on the project,
They Are Us has
been developed entirely independently of NZFC development funding structures. The NZFC
has not received any applications for development funding, production funding or the New
Zealand Government’s screen incentives scheme, the New Zealand Screen Production Grant
in relation to
They Are Us.
The NZFC initially advised the Ministry for Culture and Heritage and Ministry for Business,
Innovation and Employment – as the two Ministries to which the NZFC reports directly, that
NZFC staff first engaged with the
They are Us producing team when the team requested a
meeting with the NZFC’s former CEO Annabel e Sheehan in March 2020.
Following a further review of our files, we have since determined that the NZFC had initial
engagement with the producers of
They Are Us in May 2019. This correspondence is
included in
Appendix 1. Neither of the NZFC staff involved in that correspondence and
meeting - specifically Annabelle Sheehan and her Executive Assistant - continue to work for
the NZFC, so they had not been involved in the NZFC’s provision of information in respect of
the organisation’s engagement with
They Are Us.
Please note that we will be publishing this letter (with your personal information removed)
and
Appendix 1 on the NZFC website.
You have the right, by way of complaint to the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the
Official Information Act, to seek an investigation and review of our response.
Yours sincerely
Tayla Hancock
Policy Advisor
New Zealand Film Commission
