briefings on Israel and Gaza
Andrew Riddell made this Official Information request to Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
The request was partially successful.
From: Andrew Riddell
Dear Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade,
I request copies of all advice, briefings, reports and other communication since 1 October 2023 to the Prime Minster, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Leaders of Opposition Parties, and/or to cabinet on the following matters (including were the matters are included as part of communications on several topics)
- the events in Gaza and its surrounds on 7 October,
- international conventions and law on genocide, rights of people within occupied territories to resist that occupation, duties and responsibilities of occupying forces, and war crimes,
- a ceasefire in Gaza
- potential war crimes by Israel and/or Hamas
- the South African action to the International Court of Justice on the subject of genocide by Israel
I confirm I am a New Zealand citizen living in this country.
Ngā mihi
Andrew Riddell
From: ENQUIRIES
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[UNCLASSIFIED]
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From: ENQUIRIES
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Kia ora Andrew Riddell,
Thank you for your OIA request received on 4 January 2024 for:
I request copies of all advice, briefings, reports and other communication since 1 October 2023 to the Prime Minster, the Minister of Foreign Affairs, the Leaders of Opposition Parties, and/or to cabinet on the following matters (including were the matters are included as part of communications on several topics)
- the events in Gaza and its surrounds on 7 October,
- international conventions and law on genocide, rights of people within occupied territories to resist that occupation, duties and responsibilities of occupying forces, and war crimes,
- a ceasefire in Gaza
- potential war crimes by Israel and/or Hamas
- the South African action to the International Court of Justice on the subject of genocide by Israel
This email confirms receipt of your request and advises that we will respond to it as soon as reasonably practicable, and in terms of the timeframes and requirements of the OIA.
Please note that our response letter to you (with your personal details redacted), and any enclosed documents, may be published on the Ministry’s website.
Please also note that your request is formally due after the OIA summer holiday period (25 December 2023 to 15 January 2024), which are not considered working days as set out in section 2(1) of the OIA, however the Ministry will seek to provide you with a decision on your request as soon as possible.
Ngā mihi
Executive Services Division
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade | Manatū Aorere
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From: ESD
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Tēnā koe Andrew,
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request below.
The information in scope of your request is substantial, with hundreds of emails, messages, and documents, which would require the attention of our teams already under pressure monitoring the situation in Israel and the Occupied Palestinian Territories and providing assistance to New Zealanders. Therefore, your request as it currently stands is likely to be refused under section 18(f) of the OIA, as the information requested would require substantial collation and research to provide.
In order to avoid a refusal, we would like to ask if you would consider narrowing the scope of your request? For example, are you interested in a summary of advice MFAT has provided to Ministers, information on the Ministry’s approach to the Israel-Gaza conflict, information generated at a specific point in time, etc? A refinement would help us to provide you with relevant information on the issue without impairing efficient administration here at the Ministry or negatively impacting our ongoing operations.
It would be appreciated if you could respond to this email by midday on Monday 22 January 2024.
Any clarification or amendment of a request is considered to be a new request for the purpose of calculating the maximum statutory timeframe for response (section 15(1AA) of the OIA refers).
Many thanks,
Executive Services Division
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade | Manatū Aorere
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From: Andrew Riddell
Dear Executive Services Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
I am somewhat bemused by the reasons for your request for me to limit the scope of my request.
In making the request I deliberately limited it to communications with specific people and to cabinet. I further limited the request to communications from 1 October on, and to a limited range of subject matters.
I am puzzled about why that requires reviewing hundreds of emails, messages, and documents.
Are you reviewing communications TO the Prime Minister, Minister of Foreign Affairs, Leaders of Opposition Parties and TO Cabinet as per my request, or including all documents and discussion and advice leading to the drafting and submission of documents to the persons identified or to Cabinet?
Is your record keeping system capable of searching out communications to specific people? or not?
However, I am prepared for now to limit the request to all communications/briefings/reports/etc TO the Prime Minister or TO the Minister of Foreign Affairs. But keep the same time period and subject matters as in my original request.
Cheers
Andrew Riddell
From: ESD
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Tēnā koe Andrew,
I am writing concerning your Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) request below.
This email is to advise that we will need to extend the time limit for responding to you by 30 working days, to 28 March 2024. This is because consultations necessary to make a decision on your request are such that a proper response cannot reasonably be made within the original time frame (section 15A(1)(b) of the OIA refers)
However, if this process is completed before 28 March 2024, the response will be sent to you as soon as possible.
If you have any questions, you can contact us by email at: [email address]. You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of this decision by contacting www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Ngaa mihi,
Executive Services Division
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade | Manatū Aorere
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From: ESD
Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade
OIA 29002 Andrew Riddell Response.pdf
228K
Download
View as HTML
List of titles for release 7 Oct 9 Feb.pdf
1.2M
Download
View as HTML
[UNCLASSIFIED]
Tçnâ koe Andrew,
Executive Services Division
New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs & Trade | Manatû Aorere
On behalf of the Acting Secretary of Foreign Affairs and Trade, please see
attached the response to you OIA request.
Ngâ mihi,
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Things to do with this request
- Add an annotation (to help the requester or others)
- Download a zip file of all correspondence
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Andrew Riddell left an annotation ()
(a) I will be complaining to the Ombudsman over the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade's response
- excessive delays in providing the requested information
- not providing the requested information - instead the covering letter and the information provided is almost identical to what was provided to another requester a month earlier
- concern about the Ministry seeking that requests are reworded to cover information they feel like releasing instead of providing the information as requested (this seems to be a pattern with request to this ministry).
I will also be lodging a request for all correspondence relating to the processing of this request.
Link to this