Building relationships and understanding
• Ngāti Whātua Ōrākei – Recruitment pathway
• Te Ātiawa – Visit to Waiwhetū Marae
• Te Pae Herenga discussions
• Iwi chairs collaboration
Other progress
n/a
Issues under management
n/a
Other news
n/a
Page 2 of 2
A digital tool for reporting Health Safety and Wellness accidents and incidents has been made available for
the field (without requiring Ops Manual changes)
The People and Culture Advisory Team attended RRM Induction training as subject matter experts to upskill
RRM’s and Electorate Managers on SnapHire GE and employment relations matters expected during the
delivery of the event.
Activities and enquiries around HR, ER, HSW and Payroll activities have increased exponentially to support
the larger workforce appointed to deliver the election.
The team finalised Payroll and Recruitment Chapters in the Operations Manuals and templates.
The recruitment team worked with other parts of the business to prepare talking points for the CE for his
meeting with the Public Sector CEs to promote the Commission's recruitment plan and set up a contingency
workforce across the public sector. EC staff also attended the Public Sector Heads of HR meetings to
support this work.
Preparing for the future
During July we continued work on our FY24 business plan for presentation to the full Enterprise Services
team in the second week of August.
An initial Health and Safety Management System assessment indicates robust development is required.
The People and Culture Team commenced with data collection tally every week of mailboxes queries, ER
cases, MOJ cases, conflicts of interest, and serious misconduct checks completed by region and topic. This
data will inform numbers and types of queries, where extra support may be reallocated within the team,
and resources for GE2026.
The recruitment team started meeting weekly from Tuesday 18 July 2023 and the outcomes of these
meetings feed into ELT meetings to ensure the best possible approaches for sourcing the required volume
and calibre of applicants.
Updating Tupu with the many, resignations and new starters continues to be a big piece of work.
The contract with Learning Works was renegotiated, and the signing, and finance approval is almost
complete.
Building relationships and understanding
Feedback on the draft Travel Policy has been received from Kaimahi who responded. The comments will be
analysed with the view to having a new Travel Policy in August/September.
Other progress
Enterprise Services Security uplift and awareness continues with ongoing phishing simulations. A cyber
dashboard format has been agreed by the Board and will be presented frequently until after the election
period.
The Financial results for FY23 are completed in draft, and work is commencing on the Annual report. KPMG
will be returning to National Office in September to complete the audit with signing of the audit report due
by 31 October 2023.
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Issues under management
•
At the time of writing, Enterprise Services are investigating an issue with incorrect messaging in Enrol
Online during the MEO restriction period and supporting the Incident Management Team response
to the issue.
•
As GE2023 approaches, supporting those delivering will likely be an increasingly resource-intensive
priority. As a team of one in the HSW space, work on procedures templates etc., will be reduced.
Unknown to what degree at this stage
Other news
This month Enterprise Services farewelled
and
from the Admin team.
We welcomed:
• Ian Harris (Solutions Architect) to the IT Team
• Madich Snow (temporary Admin Team leader) to the Administration team
• Roel Fiel (Senior Finance Business partner) and Nick Houston (Operations Business partner) into the
Finance Team.
P&C also celebrated the promotion of Karen Joe into the role of Business Partner.
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• Liaison with Waka Kotahi re signage rules
Other progress
Advisory opinions We issued 247 advisory requests in July. All were responded to within the 5 working day
timeframe. Requests from MPs peaked around the start of the regulated period on 14 July.
Official Information Act requests responded to in July
We responded to three OIA requests in July. All were within the 20 working day timeframe.
Requestor Topic
Response
Time
1. Please send me your detailed process of ensuring chain of custody
17WD
of ballots once cast.
2. Please advise what your ballot printing and handling (un filled in)
policy is, and how you account for all legally printed ballots
3. Has the Commission taken any steps to ensure that ballots cannot
be legally printed or duplicated? Please advise what these steps are.
Examples include electronic watermarking, unique identifiers, special
paper/characteristics
4. Please advise what processes you have to ensure that fake ballots
are not included in electoral boxes
5. What is your process for recruiting election staff at voting centres.
Advise who can apply for such jobs and what criteria or pre-selection
requirements are in place
6. How do you handle special and out-of-area votes are secure?
7. At the 2020 election we had a person at an election centre talking
to us about our political preferences and leanings. Is this legal?
What steps are taken to ensure that such talk does not affect where
our ballots are placed or how they are handled?
8. Why is the Commission not advocating for photo id (e.g. Drivers
licence) ? We all know now that people voted in multiple locations,
and we do not know (including the Commission) how many fake
votes were cast in multiple locations and/or at multiple times.
I understand someone in the Manawatu district has made a
5WD
complaint about the Stop Co-Governance pamphlet that has been
provided by the organisation for the past three months or more.
It is my understanding the pamphlet has been widely circulated as
information to help people understand the issues related to what
the Government is proposing to do to change the democratic
business of our law making.
In accordance with the OIA could you please provide to me and Mr
Julian Batchelor the following information.
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1. A copy of the complaint, that provides both the name of the
complaint and the date of the complaint.
2. The copy of the pamphlet that you have checked at your
office.
3. The date on which you received the pamphlet.
4. Your stated reasons why you suggest this pamphlet is an
''election advertisement''.
5. Who do you suggest has authorised this ''advertisement'',
when clearly it has never been an advertisement. Please
provide your statement that confirms your decision.
6. Please quote the specific wording in the pamphlet that has
been complained about..
7. If the pamphlet was an ''election advertisement'' then why
was it not made available until after the 14 July? Please
provide your statement as to the timing of the complaint.
8. The statemen made by your office that suggests the
pamphlet was not authorised as a ''election advertisement"?
Please provide me with a copy of the said complaint/ under the
2WD
Official Information Act within the prescribed time limit (against the
‘Stop Co-Governance' pamphlet.
Parliamentary questions responded to in July
We responded to 27 parliamentary questions in July.
Requestor
Question
Date of
Response
Paul Goldsmith
What is the exhaustive summary of engagements and communications,
07/07/23
if any, the Electoral Commission has had with gang members or
associates in the past three months, listed by the date of the
communication, what the communication said and the mode of the
communication?
Paul Goldsmith
What is the exhaustive list of companies, organisation and individuals
07/07/23
who have received funding to promote voter enrolment or voting in
the 2023 general election to date, listed by the amount of funding they
have received and the specific work they have undertaken with or on
behalf of the Electoral Commission?
Paul Goldsmith
What is the exhaustive summary of communications, if any, the
07/07/23
Electoral Commission and Ministry of Justice has had with "H2R"
(Mobilising Hard to Reach Maori Communities) in 2023, listed by date
of the communication and what it was about?
Paul Goldsmith
What is the exhaustive summary of communications, if any, the
07/07/23
Electoral Commission has had with Harry Tam in 2023?
Paul Goldsmith
Was the Electoral Commission present at or made aware of the
07/07/23
meeting in Dunedin Harry Tam was present at that has been publicly
reported as being mistaken for an Electoral Commission meeting; if so,
when was the Electoral Commission first made aware of this meeting
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and how was it made aware of this meeting; what was the response, if
anything, by the Electoral Commission to being made aware of this
meeting and on what date was any such response provided; if the
Electoral Commission was present at this meeting, why was it present
and how many people from the Electoral Commission were present; if
the meeting was endorsed by the Electoral Commission, why was it
endorsed and how was that endorsement made?
Paul Goldsmith
Has the Minister received any explanations, information or advice as to
07/07/23
why confusion exists, or may have existed, as to whether meetings are
being organised by the Electoral Commission or the Mongrel Mob in
Dunedin; if so, on what date did she receive any such explanations,
information or advice and what did any such explanations, information
or advice say?
Paul Goldsmith
Does the Electoral Commission have any self-imposed prohibition from
07/07/23
using gangs or gang members to promote voter enrolment or voting; if
not, why not?
Paul Goldsmith
Has Harry Tam been engaged by any entity or person the Minister is
07/07/23
responsible for in relation to voter enrolment or voting in the 2023
general election; if so, what is the purpose of this engagement, what
are the terms of the engagement, what is the time period of this
engagement and what is the total expenditure, if anything, associated
with this engagement?
Paul Goldsmith
What payments, if any, from any entity or organisation the Minister is
7/07/23
responsible for have been made to "H2R" (Mobilising Hard to Reach
Maori Communities) since November 2017, listed by the total amount
of the payment and the reason for the payment?
Paul Goldsmith
Has the company "H2R" (Mobilising Hard to Reach Maori Communities)
7/07/23
been engaged or worked with the Electoral Commission in any way in
2023; if so, how, why and what specifically for; what are the total
payments, if anything, "H2R" has received due to any such engagement
or work?
Paul Goldsmith
Has the Electoral Commission held any events in Dunedin during the
07/07/23
past month; if so, what were those events, listed by the date they
occurred, their purpose, who ran the events and how, if at all, they
were promoted and the total expenditure, if any, on each event?
David Seymour
What strategies, if any, will be employed to promote Election 2023 in
07/07/23
hard to reach communities, if any?
David Seymour
How much money in total is budgeted to be spent on promoting
07/07/23
Election 2023, if any, listed by month if possible?
David Seymour
Which agencies, if any, have been contracted to produce advertising
07/07/23
materials for Election 2023; if any have been, when were contracts
signed?
David Seymour
How much was initially budgeted to have been spent to date
07/07/23
advertising Election 2023, if any?
David Seymour
How much has been spent to date on advertising and promoting
07/07/23
Election 2023, if any, listed by month and advertising medium?
Paul Goldsmith
What other events are the Electoral Commission planning to attend, if
07/07/23
any, that are organised or run by Harry Tam before the 2023 general
election?
Paul Goldsmith
Is it standard practice for the Electoral Commission to attend events
07/07/23
where the organiser has publicly expressed political preferences; if so,
why; if not, why not?
Page 4 of 6
Paul Goldsmith
Has the Electoral Commission seen the reported comments about
07/07/23
Harry Tam's political preferences; if so, will the Electoral Commission
continue to attend or provide any support to events or meetings Harry
Tam organises?
Paul Goldsmith
Did the Electoral Commission raise any concern with Harry Tam about
07/07/23
statements he made before, at or after the Mongrel Mob meeting
Electoral Commission staff attended in the week-end in Dunedin as
reported by the New Zealand Herald on 4 July 2023; if so, what specific
concerns did they raise and what response, if any, did Harry Tam
provide?
Paul Goldsmith
Why did the Electoral Commission decide to attend the Mongrel Mob
07/07/23
meeting in Dunedin at the week-end as reported by the New Zealand
Herald on 4 July 2023?
Paul Goldsmith
What information, if any, did the Electoral Commission provide Harry
07/07/23
Tam in relation to the Mongrel Mob meeting they attended in Dunedin
at the week-end?
Paul Goldsmith
What information, if any, did the Electoral Commission provide
07/07/23
attendees at the Mongrel Mob they attended in Dunedin at the week-
end?
Simeon Brown
As at 11 July 2023, for each of the departments, departmental
17/07/23
agencies, or Crown entities that the Minister is responsible for, if any,
how many job vacancies are there for each individual department,
departmental agency, or Crown entity?
Simeon Brown
As at 11 July 2023, for each of the departments, departmental
17/07/23
agencies, or Crown entities that the Minister is responsible for, if any,
what was the average call centre wait time at each department,
departmental agency, or Crown entity, for every month for the past
five years?
Simeon Brown
As at 24 July 2023, for each of the departments, departmental
27/07/23
agencies, or Crown entities that the Minister is responsible for, have
any additions to salaries or bonus payments been made to employees
that enrol in any language-based educational programmes or courses,
and if so, how many staff have benefited from this, each year for the
past six years, and what is the average addition to salary/bonus
payment that has been made, each year for the past six years?
Simeon Brown
How many employees within the departments, agencies, and entities
27/07/23
for which the Minister is responsible, if any, have been payed a
monetary bonus on top of their usual salary or wage, if any, in
recognition of their Māori language skills, with statistics displayed as
annual figures since 2017?
Issues under management
• The hearing into the police prosecution of Billy Te Kahika for alleged non-disclosure of
candidate donations has been rescheduled from 10-14 July to 4 September. Benjamin
Baker is required to appear as a witness.
• Two apparent breaches of the Broadcasting Act are currently being managed.
• Managing compliance regarding a Stop Co-Governance pamphlet.
Page 5 of 6
Other news •
Ella Simmons and Zara Melville started during July on 12 month fixed term advisor roles in
the team.
Page 6 of 6
After the Option closed, content was updated at vote.nz, a media release about the close of the
Option and final roll changes was published, FAQs were updated, and all licensed material was
removed from our public channels.
Fieldwork for the post-campaign survey of 600 Māori started on 14 July. The survey methodology
includes both an online survey and Kanohi ki te Kanohi street intercept interviews. By the end of
July, almost two-thirds of surveys had been completed including the quota of street intercept
surveys in Auckland and Tauranga. Fieldwork is on track to complete by 10 August and a draft
report is expected on 4 September.
Enrolment
The focus Enrolment has been on preparations for the start of the GE23 Enrolment Update
Campaign, which begins on 31 March 2023, and closing off the Māori Electoral Option on 13 July.
To that end:
• Recruitment for the enrolment processing teams in Auckland, Upper Hutt and Christchurch
was completed in July.
• Training for the Christchurch team commenced on 17 July, 24 July in Auckland, and will
commence on 31 July in Upper Hutt.
• The Christchurch and Auckland processing teams are operational for the start of the GE23
Enrolment Update Campaign.
• All three mailrooms are fully operational for GE23.
All roll integrity processes for July have been completed in time for the start of the Campaign –
Roll Cleanses, Post Address File (PAF) updates, and LINZ address point updates.
Quality Assurance checks were undertaken at NZ Post sites in Auckland and Christchurch on the
GE23 Enrolment Update packs. In total approximately 3,420 update packs were physically checked
against a QA form designed for the purpose.
The Māori Electoral Option campaign finished on 14 July 2023, with all “qualifying” forms keyed by
20 July. Final statistics have been provided to ELT and the media.
The Enrolment Support team has provided support for seven local body by-elections in July,
primarily in the form of elector data extracts and QA.
Thirty-five of the 40 temporary GE engagement roles have been filled and the recruitment for the
remaining five is on track. Further to this the recruitment of casual Community Liaison (CL) staff
continues and is expected to be a rolling process. All staff have completed two weeks induction
and GE specific training and have begun developing their localised approaches to community. CLs
are trained at a site level, and this will occur as they come onboard.
Contracted providers that will support community engagement activity in the lead up to GE23
have been secured. The providers will work as an extension of the SEP engagement team and will
increase our reach with Tangata Whenua, Pacific and Ethnic communities; each of the providers
have also provided specific consideration of working with youth and disability cohorts. The three
providers all have identified national reach and demonstrated strong connections to their
respective communities. The providers are Elika Consulting (Pacific), Beyond Aotearoa (Ethnic) and
Page 2 of 6
Whānau Ora Community Clinics (Tangata Whenua). Training is scheduled for the first week of
August.
The Customer Service team was recruited and trained in July to respond to public requests for
GE2023. Two staff members resigned in the past week, and these are under recruitment. A
significant number of activities have also been undertaken in July to finalise the Zendesk
improvements, associated processes and operations reporting leading to the go-live on 31 July,
some of the transition work will continue in August. Close collaboration with subject matter
experts across the Commission will continue over the next three months during the GE delivery.
We have concluded the Statement of Work with Telnet (the Commission's external call centre
provider) for MEO, and almost completed the specifications for GE2023. A significant amount of
work was completed with Telnet to set up and complete training for delivery. The testing with
ConnectingNow for interpretation Service was completed. A contract performance review with
Telnet was held in July, and a review meeting with BlueStar Printing will take place in early August.
Preparing for the future
Further work has been completed on scoping potential work on the Voting Age Bill currently
before Parliament. This will be presented to the Operations Leadership team for discussion in
August and will help to inform how needs to be included in the Operations group Work
programme for 23/24 and 24/25.
We have met with the Ministry of Youth Development’s 10-year youth strategy working group and
signalled our interest in involvement in the civic participation workstream. The plan will be
announced by the Minister in mid-August and then smaller working groups will be established.
The OLT team had a Business Planning workshop to map out all the deliverables and initiatives
from Q3 (Jan – March24) to Q2 (Oct-Dec 24) to provide OLT a planning horizon post-election. OLT
then mapped these initiatives/deliverables on a priority matrix (difficulty and cost against urgency
and importance) to understand clearly what work are strategic, high value, nice-to-have and
distraction. This exercise allowed OLT to prioritise key pieces of work that we need to focus on for
FY24/25.
Building relationships and understanding
Media
The 13 July deadline for voters of Māori descent to change rolls before the election was reported
widely in the media. Reminders were run across several news outlets and the final figures were
reported in the Herald, Spinoff, Stuff, Māori TV, Te Karere on TVNZ, by RNZ, Radio Waatea and
Radio Ngāti Porou. Hone Matthews provided radio and television interviews in te reo Māori.
The NZ Herald and Newstalk ZB reported on a gang hui in Dunedin attended by the Electoral
Commission. The ODT and Herald both ran opinion pieces that said the Commission should not be
criticised for being there to deliver enrolment and voting information.
Stuff and the NZ Herald both reported on the High Court decision finding in favour of the Electoral
Commission over the broadcasting allocation. The Judge dismissed the application for a judicial
Page 3 of 6
review by a group of smaller parties, saying the Commission had not erred in the way it distributed
the funding.
We issued a media release on 18 July about recruitment for the election. Anusha Guler was
interviewed by Newstalk ZB for bulletin stories about jobs available at the election. Anusha also
pitched the jobs to students and other Aucklanders in an interview with Radio BFM.
The resignation of the former Justice Minister Kiri Allan from her ministerial portfolios dominated
news coverage in the last week of July. Amid the resulting commentary, the Prime Minister Chris
Hipkins rejected suggestions there should be a snap election and confirmed the election would be
on 14 October.
Enrolment
The Enrolment team has completed the development of a streamlined Unpublished Roll
application process for local body (council) employees appointed or employed in elections related
roles. That process has been approved by the Chief Electoral Officer, and we are working with
Taituara on its implementation.
The Central region continue to progress our relationship with Victoria University and Associate
Professor Hon Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban. A plan is underway to undertake a series of
engagements with Pacific youth/students and Pacific kaimahi from across the motu will support
these.
A recent recruitment hui was co-hosted between SEP, Voting Services, and the Ministry for Ethnic
Communities in Christchurch. Seventy ethnic community participants learned about working for
the Commission with a number expressing an interest in applying. We also received a number of
first time and updated enrolments from the evening.
Election integrity communications As part of the Commission’s work on election integrity, the Communications and Education team
with support from voting services, have produced a series of voting place videos. The short videos
show voters walk through a voting place, with a narrator explaining the process. Electoral
Commission staff played the roles of staff and voters. These videos are now complete and are live
on our YouTube channel. Versions have also been produced in multiple languages including te reo
Māori and New Zealand Sign Language.
The videos will be shared across the Commission’s social media networks and on vote.nz at key
times leading up to and across the voting period. They have been uploaded to a new page on
ECHO, named Election Integrity with guidance on how to use them.
On vote.nz we have published our page ‘Facts about NZ elections.’ This is a key piece of content to
help counter inaccurate or misleading information about the electoral process. We plan to use this
content as a basis for our own social media content to proactively promote correct information.
Websites
With the Māori Electoral Option closed for the 2023 General Election, we have revised the content
on the website to reflect that voters can no longer change rolls.
Page 4 of 6
We continue to work with Pikselin on refinements to the website, including updates to the
mapping tool used to display electorate and voting place information. In addition, Pikselin have
provided a statement of work to conduct an accessibility review of vote.nz, including the new
Upload Voting Papers application.
We’ve also had initial discussions about joining the zero.govt.nz project, which enables people to
access government websites from their mobile devices without incurring data charges.
Social media
With the Māori Electoral Option ending on 13 July, social media activity slowed momentarily
before picking up with recruitment, Kids Voting, The Election Access Fund and other content.
The last couple of weeks of MEO content involving social influencers reached huge numbers of
people and were very successful – with one video reaching 2.3 million, and another reaching 1.3
million.
Work on the content calendar has intensified, with planning going into election integrity content
that is now available on the website.
A lot of ad hoc activity requiring social media support has been coming through from the
community engagement team, which has mainly been supported with Facebook and Instagram
stories, occasional Facebook event pages, and some graphic design work.
Our Digital Advisors met again with the Ministry for Women team to discuss Suffrage Day and
receive updates on their planned activity in the lead up to it.
The social media team attended de-escalation training, which focused more on kanohi ki te kanohi
situations, but had some useful techniques that could be pulled across into a digital and online
sphere.
Social media statistics
Our Facebook reach was up 29.2% over July compared with June, and our Instagram reach was up
76.4%. (Reach is the number of accounts that saw any content from our Page, or about our Page,
including posts, stories, ads, social information, and more.)
Overall, we currently have 46,741 Facebook followers, and 2,829 Instagram followers.
Overall, our impressions were up 60.5% in July compared with June, with 11,557,980 impressions.
(Impressions are the number of times our content was displayed to users, including those who
don’t follow us (e.g. through paid or sponsored posts).
Other progress
•
End of year PDP discussions with staff are complete in Enrolment Processing, with leaders
now focussing on write ups. Focus is also moving to PDPs and development Plans for 23/24.
Issues under management
Page 5 of 6
•
There has been significant illness in the Enrolment Support team July, which in turn has
impacted on the training of the permanent staff in that team (the staff in that team are
mostly relatively new). The training has been re-scheduled, and the priority of training
tweaked as a result. All staff are now at work.
•
There was a significant increase in the number of Unpublished Roll applications being
received by the Enrolment Support team, with 150 being received in the last two weeks. The
team is working their way through the applications and are managing the workload well.
•
An issue arose on 21 July, relating to confirmation emails associated with Enrol Online. The
matter is being managed as an incident, with daily incident status reports being provided to
ELT.
Other news
•
Two new contractors joined the Communications and Education team to support the
delivery of the General Election. Kristin South joined the team as Senior Advisor Media and
Communications and Elena Walters joined the team as Senior Advisor to support the
delivery of the advertising campaign.
•
End of year PDP discussions with staff are complete in Enrolment Processing, with leaders
now focussing on write ups. Focus is also moving to PDPs and development Plans for 23/24.
•
July has been a very hectic month for the Enrolment team, with having to continue to deliver
the MEO while also preparing for the start of the Enrolment Update Campaign on 31 March
(e.g., recruitment and training of 140+ staff, testing IT for the three processing centres,
setting up three mailrooms). The team has met these challenges head on and delivered.
•
The resignation of the Senior Advisor in the Rotorua office has meant that we have put an
interim support structure in place that will be reviewed after the General Election. The
Rotorua office will now come under the Hamilton based Senior and a Senior seconded
internally will support the Gisborne and Napier offices.
Page 6 of 6
•
Preparations for the GE23 visitor programme continue. Currently we have 41 participants
confirmed from Australia and the Pacific; we are waiting on one final response. The
International team are making good progress firming up the programme, which will include a
pōwhiri, presentations from Commission subject matter experts, visits to voting places and
hopefully the Lower Hutt office, and a farewell dinner.
•
Preparations for the General Election knowledge exchange programme are also progressing
well. Four election officials will spend two ten-day periods in New Zealand, gaining
experience across a range of election activities. The participants will be placed around
Auckland in the Te Atatu, Kelston, and New Lynn electorate HQs from 30 August – 9
September and 11 October – 21 October. One participant is from the Office of the
Bougainville Commissioner, two from Papua New Guinea Electoral Commission, and one
from Fijian Elections Office.
Other progress
• Leigh and the Strategy, Risk and Assurance team are drafting the annual report and
collating our performance measures, with the aim to have a first draft of these sections to
the Board for the 16 August meeting.
Issues under management
•
The Ministry of Justice has advised that we are not required to prepare a Briefing to the
Incoming Minister (BIM) for the new Justice Minister Hon Ginny Andersen. However, we
have been collating information so we are prepared to respond to any requests from the
new Minister.
Other news
•
Linda Carson joined the Risk and Assurance team on 17 July as our Senior Accountability
Advisor.
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