50 Victoria Street
Private Bag 6995
Wellington 6141
New Zealand
T 64 4 894 5400
F 64 4 894 6100
www.nzta.govt.nz
22 November 2022
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #20954 email]
REF: OIA-11297
Dear Chris
Request made under the Official Information Act 1982
Thank you for your email
of 25 October 2022 requesting the following information under the Official
Information Act 1982 (the Act):
Can you please provide the following across the years 2014 - 2022
1. Total Number of Employees
2. FTE
3. Fixed
Contracts
4. Contractors
5. Can you also please provide the total wage cost for those years and amount that these
people are being paid broken into salary bands / and or tax brackets - what ever is
easiest.
Please also provide
6. Any and all memos formal & informal, email, correspondence, input involved, reports and
recommendations associated with the closure of the Marsden Refinery specifically
associated with Bitumen - correspondence to include National Security, Costs for
Bitumen, correspondence with the Minister - I am specifically after all the input associated
with Bitumen and the Marsden refinery
7. If the Transport Agency did not have input please let me know why
8. Costs of bitumen from 2016 and onwards per month that the Transport Agency paid up
until todays date
9. Please provide the date Marsden refinery
I have numbered each part of your request and will answer each in turn.
1. Total Number of Employees
The total number of Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency employees per financial year from 2012/13 to
2016/17 is publicly available on page 101 of the
2016/17 Annual review of the New Zealand Transport
Agency - New Zealand Transport Agency responses to annual review questions 1 to 106 document,
found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/52SCTI_EVI_75261_TI254/new-
zealand-transport-agency-responses-to-annual-review.
The total number of Waka Kotahi employees per financial year from 2017/18 to 2020/21 is publicly
available on page 122 of the
2020/21 Annual review of the New Zealand Transport Agency - Waka
Kotahi NZ Transport Agency (Responses to written questions 1-215) document found on the New
Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/53SCTI_EVI_116640_TI2301/waka-
kotahi-nz-transport-agency-responses-to-written-questions.
I am therefore refusing this part of your request under section 18(d) of the Act as the information you
seek is already publicly available.
2. FTE
The total number of full-time equivalent permanent Waka Kotahi employees per financial year from
2014 to 2022 can be found in the relevant Waka Kotahi annual report. All annual reports since 2009
are publicly available on our website here: www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/annual-report-nzta/. I am
therefore refusing this part of your request under section 18(d) of the Act as the information you seek
is already publicly available.
3. Fixed
Contracts
The number of fixed term staff employed by Waka Kotahi per financial year from 2012/13 to 2016/17
can be found on page 87 of the publicly available
2016/17 Annual review of the New Zealand
Transport Agency responses to annual review questions 1 to 106 document, available on the New
Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/52SCTI_EVI_75261_TI254/new-
zealand-transport-agency-responses-to-annual-review.
The number of fixed term staff employed by Waka Kotahi per financial year from 2016/17 to
2021/2022 can be found on page 249 of the publicly available
2022/23 Estimates for Vote Transport
supplementary questions document, found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/resource/en-
NZ/53SCTI_EVI_123937_TI2729/2fbffc69f70a3cd261c474e6a3bc99e790242fa4.
I am therefore refusing this part of your request under section 18(d) of the Act as the information you
seek is already publicly available.
4. Contractors
The number of contractors/consultants employed by Waka Kotahi per financial year from 2012/13 to
2016/17 can be found on page 80 of the publicly available
Annual review of the New Zealand
Transport Agency - New Zealand Transport Agency responses to annual review questions 1 to 106
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document
, found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/52SCTI_EVI_75261_TI254/new-
zealand-transport-agency-responses-to-annual-review.
The number of contractors/consultants employed by Waka Kotahi per financial year since 2016/17 can
be found on page 234 of the publicly available
2022/23 Estimates for Vote Transport supplementary
questions document, found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/resource/en-
NZ/53SCTI_EVI_123937_TI2729/2fbffc69f70a3cd261c474e6a3bc99e790242fa4.
I am therefore refusing this part of your request under section 18(d) of the Act as the information you
seek is already publicly available.
5. Can you also please provide the total wage cost for those years and amount that these
people are being paid broken into salary bands / and or tax brackets - what ever is
easiest.
The total cost of wages for all employees per financial year from 2014 to 2022 can be found in the
relevant Waka Kotahi Annual report. All annual reports since 2009 are publicly available on our
website here: www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/annual-report-nzta/. I am therefore refusing this part of your
request under section 18(d) of the Act as the information you seek is already publicly available.
The salary levels of all Waka Kotahi employees per financial year from 2012/13 to 2016/17 is publicly
available on page 100 of the
2016/17 Annual review of the New Zealand Transport responses to
annual review questions 1 to 106 document, found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/52SCTI_EVI_75261_TI254/new-
zealand-transport-agency-responses-to-annual-review.
The salary levels of all Waka Kotahi employees per financial year from 2017/18 to 2020/21 is publicly
available on page 121 of the
2020/21 Annual review of the New Zealand Transport Agency
(Responses to written questions 1-215) document, found on the New Zealand Parliament website at:
www.parliament.nz/en/pb/sc/submissions-and-advice/document/53SCTI_EVI_116640_TI2301/waka-
kotahi-nz-transport-agency-responses-to-written-questions
6. Any and all memos formal & informal, email, correspondence, input involved, reports and
recommendations associated with the closure of the Marsden Refinery specifically
associated with Bitumen - correspondence to include National Security, Costs for
Bitumen, correspondence with the Minister - I am specifically after all the input associated
with Bitumen and the Marsden refinery
On 26 October 2022, we contacted you to seek clarification of what timeframe your request for
correspondence and documents covers, we also invited you to specify the particular documents you
seek, since as it stands, this part of your request is not specified with due particularity as required
under section 12(2) of the Act.
As we have not received a response from you, we are unable to answer this part of your request.
Waka Kotahi has received Official Information Requests for specific documents and correspondence
relating to bitumen previously. We have published a response, and the documents that fell within
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scope of the request, on our website. You can find this under the
New Zealand bitumen supply response from 8 April 2022 on our website at:
www.nzta.govt.nz/about-us/official-information-act/media-official-information-act-oia-responses/.
7. If the Transport Agency did not have input please let me know why
While Waka Kotahi holds correspondence and documents regarding bitumen, we were not directly
involved in discussions about the Marsden Point Oil Refinery being closed down.
8. Costs of bitumen from 2016 and onwards per month that the Transport Agency paid up
until todays date
Waka Kotahi does not pay for bitumen directly. Bitumen, used on Waka Kotahi works projects, is
purchased by the contractor that Waka Kotahi has employed for a project or by a sub-contractor. The
cost to supply, for example, a square metre of chip seal or asphalt surfacing, is commonly known, but
the cost of the individual materials required to deliver it, such as bitumen, is not.
While Waka Kotahi does not know what its contractors pay for bitumen, the monthly Z Energy bitumen
list price per tonne is supplied to Waka Kotahi by Z Energy to allow us to calculate our ‘bitumen cost
adjustment series’. The Z Energy list price is commercially sensitive due to Z Energy being in a
competitive market, we are therefore withholding this cost of bitumen under section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the
Act to protect information where making it available would be likely to unreasonably to prejudice the
commercial position of the person who supplied or who is the subject of the information.
With respect to the information that has been withheld, I do not consider there are any other factors
which would render it desirable, in the public interest, to make the information available.
9. Please provide the date Marsden refinery
When we contacted you on 26 October 2022, to seek clarification of your request, we also asked that
you clarify this question as it appears the sentence is not complete. As we did not receive a response
from you, we are unable to answer this part of your request.
Under section 28 of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review my decision to
withhold certain information. The contact details for the Ombudsman can be located at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz.
If you would like to discuss this reply with Waka Kotahi, please contact Ministerial Services, by email
to [NZTA request email].
Yours sincerely
Brett Wood
Manager, People Experience
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