133 Molesworth Street
PO Box 5013
Wellington 6140
New Zealand
T+64 4 496 2000
2 October 2023
Al
By email: [FYI request #22821 email]
Ref:
H202303092
Tēnā koe Al
Response to your request for official information Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) to Manatū Hauora
(the Ministry of Health) on 5 August 2023 as a follow up to information provided to you under
reference: H2023025401.
Firstly, I would like to apologise for the delay in communicating a decision on your request.
Manatū Hauora values the importance of timely communication but also wanted to ensure that
our response was accurate and thoroughly considered, which took some time.
Many of the key people in the referenced document are no longer active staff members of their
respective agencies. Consequently, identifying details of the meetings in question was a difficult
and time-consuming process, involving consultation with agencies including the Department of
the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) and Te Whatu Ora – Health New Zealand.
Please accept our apologies for the delay in communicating a decision on your request and any
inconvenience or frustration this may have caused.
For ease of reference, I am addressing the following matters in this letter: the meetings
referenced in DPMC’s response of 13 January 2023 (OIA-2022/23-0399 refers), the Ministry’s
OIA response of 14 June 2023 (H2023025401 refers) and your follow-up request on 5 August
2023.
In your correspondence of 5 August 2023, you stated:
I made this OIA request (ref: H2023025401) because a previous OIA request to DPMC
showed a meeting between Stuff and DPMC and Ministry of Health and Medsafe
communications teams on the subject of Covid vaccine mis/disinformation in June 2021,
and a follow up meeting between only the government teams followed it. Here is the link: https://aus01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Ffyi.org.nz%2Freque
st%2F21354-information-supporting-the-stuff-the-whole-truth-
project&data=05%7C01%7Coiagr%40health.govt.nz%7C70c0e57872004f10083508db95
468de7%7C23cec7246d204bd19fe9dc4447edd1fa%7C0%7C0%7C63826790248811670
2%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6I
k1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=tAQYZiOdimFBar%2Bx12S
sYQOVWSwWdLgVHbOwq7IvYck%3D&reserved=0 However in your response to me you said that no meetings were held between teams on
this topic with either Stuff or NZ Herald. You said:
"I have interpreted this as referring to meetings between the Manatū Hauora
Communications Team, the teams in the COVID-19 Vaccine Programme, and media
organisations Stuff and the NZ Herald between 1 June 2021 to 1 February 2022" And: "I can confirm that there is no record of any meetings held between Manatū Hauora and
these groups regarding mis- and dis-information"
You requested:
I request a review of this response and the roles of people who were involved in that
meeting with Stuff in June 2021 and what area they worked for (Ministry of Health or
Covid-19 comms or Medsafe as per the original DPMC OIA). I also request any further
meetings or email communications with Stuff pertaining to this meeting or on the subject
of Covid related mis/disinformation.
I note that the correspondence released by DPMC mentions two meetings: one on 18 June
2021 and another held the week prior on 10 June 2021. I have addressed each of these
meetings in turn below.
Meeting of 10 June 2021
Manatū Hauora can confirm that the subject of the 10 June 2021 meeting was not on
mis/disinformation, instead it was to discuss an OIA response issued by Manatū Hauora, which
required further interagency discussions. As the discussion was not about COVID-19
mis/disinformation, this was deemed out of scope of your original request.
Our records indicate that the following individuals attended this meeting.
• Katie Kenny – National Correspondent, Stuff
• Chris James – Group Manager, Medsafe
• Two Advisors from the COVID-19 Vaccine Immunisation Communications Team.
Meeting of 18 June 2021
The succeeding meeting on 18 June 2021 was organised by DPMC to discuss ‘the Whole Truth
Project’ (the Project) by Stuff NZ1. The Whole Truth Project was an investigative journalism
initiative that aimed to shed light on significant issues in Aotearoa New Zealand, including
COVID-19 mis/disinformation amongst other topics.
1 The Whole Truth Project by Stuff NZ
: https://interactives.stuff.co.nz/2022/the-whole-truth-te-
maramatanga/
Page 2 of 4
As noted in DPMC’s response,
“during the period that DPMC was responsible for strategic
communication and coordination and communications to address COVID-19 mis and
disinformation, officials met with the Stuff project team.”
From time to time, different parts of Manatū Hauora (such as Medsafe and our clinical teams)
would be engaged in reviewing some of the Project’s content to ensure factual accuracy. Our
records indicate that the following attendees were present at the 18 June 2021 meeting.
• A DPMC official
• Two members of the COVID-19 Vaccine Immunisation Communications Team2
• Two representatives from Stuff NZ
• A Ministry for Pacific Peoples official.
Manatū Hauora OIA response (H2023025401)
In the response provided to you, you were advised that your request had been interpreted as:
…referring to meetings between the Manatū Hauora Communications Team, the teams in
the COVID-19 Vaccine Programme, and media organisations Stuff and the NZ Herald
between 1 June 2021 to 1 February 2022 [on the subject of mis- and disinformation on
COVID vaccines].
As there were no Manatū Hauora Communications team members present or invited to the
above-mentioned meetings (10 and 18 June 2021), or any other meetings within the requested
timeframe (1 June 2021 to 1 February 2022), Manatū Hauora stands refused your request for
email communications under section 18(e) of the Act, as they did not exist.
However, as part of the search conducted for information relating to your current request, and
as mentioned above, it has been brought to the Ministry’s attention that the COVID-19 Vaccine
Immunisation Communications Team was involved in meetings with Stuff NZ. This function is
now the responsibility of Te Whatu Ora.
Manatū Hauora has consulted with Te Whatu Ora regarding your request pursuant to section 13
of the Act, to ascertain whether that agency holds any further information that may be of
assistance to you. Te Whatu Ora has advised that they are unaware of any additional
information held by their agency that falls within scope of your request. You may wish to contact
Te Whatu Ora directly if you would like to make a request for any information held by the former
COVID-19 Vaccine Immunisation team. They can be contacted at
[email address]. Your follow-up request (H202303092)
Turning to your subsequent request for:
…any further meetings or email communications with Stuff pertaining to this meeting or on
the subject of Covid related mis/disinformation.
Attached as Document 1 is a copy of a media log created by the Manatū Hauora
Communications team, which outlines media queries from Stuff on the topic of
dis/misinformation. This is being released to you with a small amount of information withheld
under section 9(2)(a) of the Act, to protect personal privacy. I have considered the
2 The COVID-19 Vaccine Immunisation Communications Team transferred to Te Whatu Ora (Health New
Zealand) as part of the health system reforms in July 2022.
Page 3 of 4
countervailing public interest in releasing information and consider that it does not outweigh the
need to withhold at this time.
No further information has been identified within scope of your request.
I hope that you find this information helpful. If you wish to discuss any aspect of your request
with us, including this decision, please feel free to contact the OIA Services Team on:
[email address]. Under section 28(3) of the Act, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to review any
decisions made under this request. The Ombudsman may be contacted by email at:
[email address] or by calling 0800 802 602.
Please note that this response, with your personal details removed, may be published on the
Manatū Hauora website at:
www.health.govt.nz/about-ministry/information-releases/responses-
official-information-act-requests. Nāku noa, nā
Elisabeth Brunt
Acting Deputy Director-General
Government and Executive Services | Te Pou Whakatere Kāwanatanga
Page 4 of 4
