OIAD-366
Tim
[FYI request #20195 email]
Dear Tim
Thank you for your email of 9 August 2022 requesting the following under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
1. Could I please have all advice the Ministry has provided to the Minister relating to a National
Maori Entity, in the last 12 months?
2. I am specifically interested to understand what powers this new entity will have. If the new
entity identifies an area where it believes the system is not giving effect to the principles of Te
Tiriti, will it have an advisory role or will the Entity have the power to force other operators
within the system to change decisions or plans? Does the Ministry have any internal
documents analyzing such questions? Could these please be released to me?
3. The speech also states that the Entity will be able input into the new National Planning
Framework and have the ability to provide advice to anyone working in the system. What is
the form of input the entity will have into the National Planning Framework? What is the
process where the Minister and the Entity disagree? Do you have any internal documents
assessing this question? Can these be released?
4. What is the status of advice the Entity provides to "anyone working in the system"? Will this
advice be binding, alternatively, will other parts of the system simply have to respond to this
advice, or can they ignore it if they wish? Do you have internal documents assessing these
questions? Can these be released?
There are thirteen documents in scope of your request. Three of these documents are
Ministerial Oversight Group (MOG) papers, which will soon be proactively released on the
Ministry for the Environment’s website. As such, these documents have been refused under
section 18(d) of the Act, as they will soon be publicly available.
The remaining ten documents have been withheld under section 9(2)(f)(iv) of the Act, to
maintain the constitutional conventions for the time being which protect the confidentiality of
advice tendered by Ministers of the Crown and officials.
In terms of section 9(1) of the Act, I am satisfied that, in the circumstances, the withholding
of this information is not outweighed by other considerations that render it desirable to make
the information available in the public interest.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Office of the Ombudsman of
my decision to withhold information relating to this request, in accordance with section 28(3)
of the Act. The relevant details can be found on their website at:
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
Please note that due to the public interest in our work the Ministry for the Environment
publishes responses to requests for official information on our
OIA responses page shortly
after the response has been sent. If you have any queries about this, please feel free to
contact our Ministerial Services team:
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Electronically signed by Keita Kohere
Keita Kohere
Director – RM Te Ao Māori Policy
Document schedule
Document
Document
Content
Decision
OIA sections
no.
date
applied
1
4 October
RM Reform Ministerial
Refused
18(d)
2021
Oversight Group Meeting #11
and #12 on 4 October 2021
2
October 2021
MOG #17 Annex A
Refused
18(d)
3
October 2021 MOG #17 Paper 2 – Annex B
Refused
18(d)
4
9 May 2022
BRF-1567
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
Meeting with the Minister for
full
the Public Service and
Minister of Finance about the
establishment of the National
Māori Entity
5
3 June 2022
BRF-1536
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
RM Reform 166 – Detailed
full
decisions for system
monitoring and oversight
(NBA and SPA)
6
12 July 2022
Aide Memoire: RM reform
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
delegated decisions
full
7
10 June 2022
BRF-1608
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
RM Reform 185 – Delegated
full
decisions on further details
about the National Māori
Entity
8
21 July 2022
Updated BRF-1608 RM
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
Reform 185 – Delegated
full
decisions on further details
about the National Māori
Entity
9
23 June 2022
BRF-1809 RM Reform 199 –
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
Cover note re updates in
full
BRF-1608 – Delegated
decisions on further details
about the National Māori
Entity
Document
Document
Content
Decision
OIA sections
no.
date
applied
10
20 June 2022
BRF-1779 RM Reform –
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
Meeting between the joint
full
decision-making
Ministers on the National
Māori Entity appointments
process
11
15 November
BRF-860 RM Reform 89 –
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
2021
Process options for involving
full
iwi/Māori in the first iteration
of the National Planning
Framework
12
Treaty impacts analysis
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
template – specialised
full
version for RM reform
13
Table 3: Further details on
Withheld in
9(2)(f)(iv)
membership of the National
full
Māori Entity, decision-making
authority delegated to the
Minister for the Environment
and Associate Minister for the
Environment (Hon Allan).
