21 February 2022
Ref: OIA-22-001
John Trafalgar
By Email:
[FYI request #18279 email]
Tēnā koe John,
Thank you for your email of 21 January 2022 requesting, under the Official Information Act 1982 (Act),
Cal aghan Innovation employee ethnicity data, information relating to pre-employment security
assessments and ongoing security monitoring of staff.
For clarity, each of your questions are addressed in turn.
1. Please advise the current number of employees and contractors who identified themselves as ethnic
Chinese and was borned outside New Zealand. Please break down the number into employees vs
contractors, and ful -time vs part-time. Please also advise the number of identified people fitting the
criteria above whose job al ows access to sensitive innovation, research and development
information/data.
Cal aghan Innovation does not currently have any contractors working with us who have identified
themselves as Chinese.
There are currently 20 Permanent and 21 Ful -time employees who identify as Chinese and whose
nationality is not New Zealand.
This data cannot be broken down by the number of Fixed term or Part-time staff as it would pose a risk
to the privacy of the individuals, as such this information is withheld under section 9(2)(a) of the Act.
Public interest considerations weigh in favour of protecting the privacy of individuals.
Of the staff who identify as Chinese and whose nationality is not New Zealand, 19 have access to
sensitive data.
Cal aghan Innovation’s definition of sensitive data includes the fol owing categories:
●
Protected: information whose disclosure or alteration would cause harm to Cal aghan
Innovation, it’s people, customers, partners or vendors.
●
Customer Specific: customer information that has customer specific requirements that differ
significantly from Cal aghan information handling requirements (e.g. cannot be stored on cloud
services).
Note: this data is based on self-identified ethnicities and nationalities, and includes Chinese, Hong Kong
Chinese and Malaysian Chinese.
Rukuhia te wāhi ngaro, hei maunga tātai whetū
Explore the unknown, pursue excellence
www.cal aghaninnovation.govt.nz | Page 1
2. Please provide any policy, internal procedural and/or operational guidance documents on how
Cal aghan Innovation assesses the risks of espionage, intel ectual property theft, and inflitration by the
evil regime of Communist China in Cal aghan Innovation before making any recruitment decision.
As per Cal aghan Innovation’s Security Framework, there are processes in place to ensure that people
meet the security requirements of their roles before, during and after employment.
These processes include recruitment checks as fol ows:
Cal aghan Innovation Employees - references, identity/eligibility to work in New Zealand, Ministry of
Justice (MoJ) criminal record check, serious misconduct check if coming to us from another public
sector organisation, qualifications check if requested. Additional standard checks are The Drug
Detection Agency (TDDA) tests and a Health Questionnaire.
Contractors - If the contract is for less than three months, a TDDA test and references are required. A
Health Questionnaire is also required, if the contract is for more than three months. It should be noted
that contractors largely come through the Al -of-Government approved agencies where they are
required to do identity/eligibility to work and MoJ checks.
It should also be noted that for immigration purposes Immigration New Zealand requires numerous
background checks which wil include criminal history from their country of origin.
Cal aghan Innovation is currently working on strengthening processes to ensure staff comply with their
obligations during and after employment including ongoing monitoring and reminding staff of their
obligations when they transition out of employment.
3. Please provide any policy, internal procedural and/or operational guidance documents on how
Cal aghan Innovation monitors the risks of espionage, intel ectual property theft, and inflitration by the
evil regime of Communist China in Cal aghan Innovation by and/or in relation to current employees
and contractors on a continuous basis.”
Cal aghan Innovation’s risk assessment processes for information security including the risk of information
theft by foreign aligned actors is based on the Government Chief Digital Officer’s risk assessment
guidance which can be found here:
www.digital.govt.nz/dmsdocument/3-risk-assessment-process-information-security/html
Cal aghan Innovation’s Security Framework and supporting standards provide guidance on a range of
security processes relating to:
-
Information classification,
-
Asset management,
-
People security,
-
Physical security,
-
Digital security,
-
Access control management, and
-
Security of business operations,
Rukuhia te wāhi ngaro, hei maunga tātai whetū
Explore the unknown, pursue excellence
www.cal aghaninnovation.govt.nz | Page 2
While these processes are not specific to monitoring risk of information theft, adherence to these
processes reduces the risk of information theft.
Additional y, on-going security awareness ensures that these procedures are front of mind for staff and
any risks are highlighted.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision. Information
about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802
602.
Nāku noa, nā
Jen Cherrington
Chief Innovation Enablement Officer
Cal aghan Innovation
Rukuhia te wāhi ngaro, hei maunga tātai whetū
Explore the unknown, pursue excellence
www.cal aghaninnovation.govt.nz | Page 3
