13 December 2023
James
By email:
[FYI request #25128 email]
Dear James
LGOIMA REQUEST FOR INFORMATION RELATED TO AUCKLAND WAR MEMORIAL MUSEUM’S
MEETING AND COMMUNICATIONS WITH CHLOE SWARBRICK MP
I refer to your request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
(‘LGOIMA’) as fol ows:
In early November, Auckland Central MP Chloe Swarbrick attended a rally at the Auckland
Domain where she publicly stated she would hold the Museum accountable for lighting the
building in the colours of Israel in a show of solidarity. As such, under the OIA I kindly request
the fol owing:
All communications between Swarbrick and Museum staff, board members or representatives
concerning either Israel/Palestine/Gaza. This should include but not be limited to emails, texts,
phone calls, social media interactions etc.
All meeting minutes, discussion points, outcomes, and meeting attendees.
Information related to meeting with Chloe Swarbrick MP
On 16 November 2023 the Museum’s Chief Executive David Reeves and I met with Ms Swarbrick.
I am releasing to you all correspondence between the Museum, Ms Swarbrick, and Ms Swarbrick’s
office that the Museum holds in relation to this meeting. In addition to the written correspondence
there were two phone calls from a Museum staff member to Ms Swarbrick to facilitate setting up
this meeting. These phone cal s were on Wednesday 18 October and Wednesday 8 November. The
Museum did not take any minutes or discussion points for this meeting. However the meeting is
summarised in reports to the Museum Trust Board. I am releasing those to you.
Al information is
attached. Redactions have been made to protect the privacy of natural persons in
accordance with s.7(2)(a) LGOIMA. All redactions are on those grounds with the exception of other
information that is out of scope of your request (and noted accordingly in the materials).
A staff member from Ms Swarbrick’s Auckland electorate office was also present at the 16
November meeting. I am declining to release the name of that person in accordance with s.7(2)(a)
LGOIMA.
Where we have withheld information under s.7(2)(a) we have considered whether the public
interest outweighs the reasons for withholding and determined that it does not.
Other correspondence between any Museum representatives and Chloe Swarbrick concerning
Israel / Palestine / Gaza
There were two phone calls from a Museum staff member to Ms Swarbrick to facilitate setting up a
meeting. These were on Wednesday 18 October and Wednesday 8 November. We are not aware of
any communications between Ms Swarbrick and senior Museum representatives other than those
communications related to the meeting on 16 November and released to you here. The Museum
currently does not have the technological capability to search all email accounts at once, nor all
mobile phone calls or text messages across the organisation. We can however carry out more
focused searches on smaller numbers of Museum representatives’ accounts. Please let me know if
you wish to refocus this part of your request, otherwise we wil likely need to refuse it on the
grounds of substantial collation and research (s.17(f) LGOIMA).
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of our decision.
Information about how to make a complaint is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or
freephone 0800 802 602.
Yours sincerely,
James Liddel
External Relations Manager