Reference: 20230204
16 May 2023
Liz Blue
[FYI request #22582 email]
Dear Liz
I refer to your Official Information Act request, received on 27 April 2023. You
requested:
1. Any documents provided by the Treasury to the Covid-19 Royal
Commission of Inquiry
2. Any correspondence between staff employed by the Treasury, and Tony
Blakely, Hon Hekia Parata or John Whitehead
3. Any correspondence between staff employed by the Treasury, and staff
employed by the Covid-19 Royal Commission of Inquiry.
Generally, you may be interested in Treasury’s advice to the Government on the
response to COVID-19 which has been proactively released on the Treasury website
at:
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/information-release/advice-covid-19-
response-information-release and
https://www.treasury.govt.nz/publications/information-release/unite-against-covid-19-
information-release.
With relation to part 1 of your request, evidence given, or submissions made, to a
Royal Commission is not considered official information, as set out in section 2(1)(h) of
the Official Information Act.
With relation to parts 2 and 3, Treasury holds some official information that is relevant
to your request. It relates to administrative tasks, such as scheduling meetings,
requests for information and discussions about delivery of submissions to the
COVID 19 Royal Commission of Inquiry (RCoI). I have summarised this information in
the table below.
Date
Correspondence
Description
21 February 2023 E-mail from Treasury to RCoI
This e-mail discusses background
information for a meeting between the
Treasury and RCoI
28 February 2023
E-mails between Treasury and
Correspondence related to scheduling a
RCoI
meeting with Treasury and RCoI
1 The Terrace
PO Box 3724
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
tel. +64-4-472-2733
https://treasury.govt.nz
16 March 2023
Letter from RCoI to Treasury
Request for information
23 March 2023
Letter from Treasury to RCoI
This letter confirms documents that will
be sent and timeframes
5 April 2023
Letter from RCoI to Treasury
Response from RCoI about timeframes
for requested documents
6 April 2023
Letter from Treasury to RCoI
Response to initial information request,
with submissions
10 April 2023
E-mail from RCoI to Treasury
Confirmation of receipt of submissions
20 April 2023
Letter from Treasury to RCoI
Response to initial information request
with additional submissions
20 April 2023
E-mail from RCoI to Treasury
Confirmation of receipt of letter and
query about dates for provision of
additional submissions
21 April 2023
E-mail from Treasury to RCoI
Response to query about dates for
provision of additional submissions
If you would like to request copies of these documents, please let us know.
Please note that this letter (with your personal details removed) and enclosed
documents may be published on the Treasury website.
This reply addresses the information you requested. You have the right to ask the
Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision.
Yours sincerely
John Beaglehole
Director, COVID 19 Royal Commission
2