New Zealand Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade
Manatū Aorere
22 July 2021
195 Lambton Quay
Private Bag 18−901
Wellington 6160
New Zealand
Thomas Allard
T +64 4 439 8000
[FYI request #15980 email]
F +64 4 472 9596
OIA 27554
Tēnā koe Thomas Allard
I refer to your email of 5 July 2021 in which you request the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (OIA):
Please provide the following under the Official Information Act 1982:
1. All MFAT roles into which staff are posted, which do not require the staff member to be
a foreign policy officer.
2. The remuneration range that applies to each of these roles.
Under the Foreign Affairs Act 1988, all roles into which staff are posted require that the person
undertaking the offshore assignment is an employee of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and
Trade (the Ministry) or on secondment to the Ministry. Roles do not have to be filled by a
foreign policy officer.
Ordinarily, foreign policy officers are assigned into most offshore roles, given their specific
training and development in the skills and capabilities required of the role.
The main exception is a small number of Administration Manager, ICT, and business support
roles at post where the assignee is not normally a foreign policy officer.
There are also, customarily, a small number of Head of Mission (HOM) or Head of Post (HOP)
roles where the appointee may not have been a foreign policy officer. HOM and HOP
appointments are made by the Governor-General on recommendation from the Minister of
Foreign Affairs.
There are 245 roles that staff can be assigned into on a posting. In the attached Annex, we
have aggregated these 245 roles into the most common job categories, in order to protect
individual confidentiality. The minimum and maximum of the remuneration range (in NZ$) that
applies to each job category is also provided.
Please note that we may publish this letter (with your personal details redacted) on the
Ministry’s website.
e [MFAT request email]
w www.mfat.govt.nz
Page 2 of 3
If you have any questions about this decision, you can contact us by email at:
[email address]. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the
Ombudsman of this decision by contacting www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone
0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Julie-Anne Lee
for Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade
Page 3 of 3
Annex: Appointments to offshore posts – role type and salary
Job Title
Number
Band min
of roles
Min
Max
Ambassador
26
155,182 280,900
High Commissioner
16
134,052 280,900
Consul-General / Chargé d'affaires / Permanent Representative
12
113,856 280,900
Deputy Head of Mission / Deputy High Commissioner / Deputy Permanent Representative
13
113,856 209,952
Counsel or
22
95,555 181,364
First Secretary
70
78,540 209,952
Second Secretary
55
68,449 129,281
Other Foreign Policy Staff
5
95,555 209,952
Administration Manager
7
68,449 106,260
ICT Support
5
78,540 106,260
Business Support and Admin
14
50,240 129,281