10 August 2023
Hamish Gordon
[FYI request #23645 email]
Ref: OIA-2023/24-0076
Dear Hamish
Official Information Act request for information on the budget and staffing for the
Christchurch Call Unit
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request received on 31 July 2023.
You requested:
“
I would like to know detailed information on the Christchurch Call which I understand is
administered from the DPMC.
Specifically how many people are employed on this group?
The total budget and break down of the costs (salaries, administration, travel).
I would like this information for the last two financial years.”
You are correct, the Christchurch Call Unit (the Unit) is hosted by the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC). Formally, the Unit is a joint venture with the Ministry of
Foreign Affairs and Trade (MFAT), which means that staff from both organisations work on
Christchurch Call matters.
Information about resourcing committed by MFAT to the Unit is more closely connected to
MFAT’s functions. Accordingly, I have transferred your request to the extent it relates to
MFAT resourcing of the Unit to MFAT under section 14(b)(ii) of the Act. MFAT has the usual
timeframes under the Act from receipt of this transfer to make a decision on your request.
The DPMC budget and breakdown of budgeted costs for the Unit for the last two years is
given in the table below. At present there are ten people in the DPMC part of the Unit, six of
whom work full-time. Not all of these people are employees of DPMC: amongst the ten are
secondees from the Ministry for Women, from InternetNZ, and from the Australian
Department of Home Affairs.
2021/22
2022/23
Budget
Budget
Personnel
647,140
803,233
Travel
5,000
60,000
Other
360,016 1,303,000
Total
1,012,156 2,166,233
4775933
Executive Wing, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand 6011
64 4 817 9698 www.dpmc.govt.nz
Please note that these numbers do not include the costs of corporate overhead, which are
allocated separately in our budget system.
The growth in “Other” costs for the 2022/23 year is largely a result of New Zealand’s
NZ$917,000 contribution to the work by Non-Government Organisation, OpenMined to
develop tools to safely and securely study social media algorithms. This project, which cost
US$2 million in total, is jointly funded by New Zealand, the US Government, Microsoft, and
Twitter.
For completeness, you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my
decision under section 28(3) of the Act.
This response wil be published on the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet’s
website during our regular publication cycle. Typically, information is released monthly, or as
otherwise determined. Your personal information including name and contact details will be
removed for publication.
Yours sincerely
Anneliese Parkin
Deputy Chief Executive, Policy
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