IN-CONFIDENCE
DAILY INTERAGENCY REPORT TO
GEDT
Submitted daily not later than 11am.
Date: 11 October 2023
DPMC:
FYI - The ODESC System has been activated to consider the consequences of the Israeli – Hamas
conflict.
NZ Police:
Several climate change protesters were ejected out of the audience at the Christchurch Press
Leaders Debate on the evening of 10th October, after calling out ACT Party Leader David Seymour
and unveiling a “Restore Passenger Rail” banner. SOURCE: NZ Herald.
There is currently no significant policing operation for protests or other planned activities, beyond
a routine presence at certain events. No significant protest or disruptive action is currently known.
NEMA (Daily Intelligence Briefing attached):
NSTR
GCSB:
NSTR
NZSIS:
Reporting via the JIG
MoH:
NSTR
IN-CONFIDENCE
IN-CONFIDENCE
Waka Kotahi:
https://www.journeys.nzta.govt.nz/highway-conditions/traffic-and-travel-list-view/
NSTR
MFAT:
NSTR
MoJ:
Port Waikato by-election
The Ministry is working with the Electoral Commission and Treasury to develop advice for the
Minister of Justice on (i) funding requirements and (ii) a technical Order in Council that may be
required to support the delivery of the Port Waikato by-election.
FENZ:
NSTR
MPI:
NSTR
MBIE:
NSTR
Prepared by: David
IN-CONFIDENCE
NO contingency staff.
Voting Place – Lower North Island
• The Regional Manager and Regional Advisor are checking staff are prepared for early count and Election
Day activities.
• Learning & Development Advisor from National Office will be heading over to Wairarapa to be a Mobile
Support for us on Election Day to allow for a VPM to be sent up to central Hawkes Bay area for Election
Day
• Health, Safety & Wellbeing Lead is working with our Prison team today to assist getting through the 300
odd remand prisoners at Remutaka prison.
Voting Place – South Island
• We are well prepared with the things we can control at this stage of the week.
• We are fully staffed and have backups available everywhere or within a 1 -2hr drive.
• We have 4 National Office contingency staff going into Greymouth, Oamaru, Twizel and North
Canterbury to bolster backup staff or perform roles we couldn’t fill.
• One Electorate Manager has tested positive for Covid this morning but she has good plans in place and
her electorate is well prepared. We have Regional Advisors (RA), the RTM and previous RA stationed
around the region in electorates we feel are more vulnerable.
Voting Services
• Systems issues this morning impacted the operation of eRoll in voting places and the UVP systems for the
Overseas Team. It would be good to understand the issue and gain assurance around Election Day.
• Regional Managers will be talking to the Electorate Managers about preparing for higher Election Day
voting numbers than expected, due to current voting trends.
Enrolment
GENERAL UPDATE
• Issues with VoteNZ and Enquiries full inboxes and cannot accept any more emails, currently being dealt
with by IT.
IT
GENERAL UPDATE: Major IT incident - Connectivity issues:
Between 0800 and 1040 users experienced issues connecting to some Electoral Commission systems,
primarily those hosted in the Catalyst Cloud that impacted multiple external customers.
EC Systems and services that were affected:
• UVP/DVP
• Election Results
• Tupu e-learning
• e-Roll mobile app
• Digital enrol online
• Telnet Call Centre roll query app
Root cause is believed to be a security patch that was applied by Catalyst security provider Cloudflare in the
early hours, this still needs to be 100% confirmed. IT has pressed the importance of expediting the Post
Incident Report (PIR) to provide assurance going forwards.
Comms &
GENERAL UPDATE:
Education
• Media release yesterday following the PM’s announcement containing a full timetable for the Port
Waikato by-election.
• Chief Electoral Officer interviewed today for Breakfast to air Friday morning; DCE, Operations
interviewed for Pacific Media Network this morning.
• Media - attention is turning to the last days of voting. A media release on this will be shared this Friday,
before election day. Large number of requests for filming at voting places. Ongoing focus on the costs of
a (second) election.
• Our election advertising is running at its highest level across all of our channels with a transactional
message to ‘Vote now’ and motivational messages to ‘Make your voice heard’
Social media
6(c)
Saturday, and again on Sunday. There is low confidence of warnable rainfall about Buller and far western
Tasman on Saturday and Sunday, and also low confidence that southerly rain could reach short duration
warning rainfall amounts about other parts of Southland, and possibly southern Otago, on Saturday.
There is moderate confidence that northwest winds will reach severe gale about exposed parts of southern
Fiordland, Southland and Clutha on Friday, and moderate confidence of severe northwest gales about
exposed parts of Canterbury, Marlborough, Wellington and Wairarapa (including the Tararua District) on
Saturday and Sunday. Additionally, there is low confidence of severe north or northwest gales about Buller
and Westland on Saturday, and also about parts of Hawke's Bay on Saturday and Sunday.
MetService
Saturday
Extended
North Island: Scattered showers in the west, with a period of rain spreading north. Cloudy periods in the
Forecast - 14 west, with scattered falls spreading north. South Island: Rain with heavy falls in the west, easing to showers
Oct
later. Scattered falls elsewhere clearing, but isolated showers linger in the south.
Ordinary Votes – Daily and cumulative
GE 2023 Voting
• Learning & Development Advisor from National Office will be heading over to Wairarapa to be a Mobile
Support for us on Election Day to allow for a Voting Place Manager to be sent up to central Hawkes Bay
area for Election Day
• Health, Safety & Wellbeing Lead is working with our Prison team today to assist getting through the 300
odd remand prisoners at Remutaka prison.
• Working with Police College who will be sending 2 busloads of Police cadets to the appropriate Voting
Place/s to vote.
Voting Place – South Island
• We are well prepared for election day activities
• We are fully staffed and have backups available everywhere or within a 1 -2hr drive.
• We have 4 National Office contingency staff going into Greymouth, Oamaru, Twizel and North
Canterbury to bolster backup staff or perform roles we couldn’t fill.
• One Electorate Manager has tested positive for Covid this morning, but she has good plans in place and
her electorate is well prepared. We have Regional Advisors (RA), the Regional Training Manager (RTM)
and previous RA stationed around the region in electorates we feel are more vulnerable.
Voting Services
• Regional Managers will be talking to the Electorate Managers about preparing for higher Election Day
voting numbers than expected, due to current voting trends.
Enrolment
GENERAL UPDATE
• Issues with VoteNZ and Enquiries full inboxes and cannot accept any more emails, currently being dealt
with by IT.
• Advising Voting Services field staff to immediately start scanning enrolment forms on Sunday. Enrolment
has only 3 days for processing the forms.
IT
GENERAL UPDATE: Major IT incident - Connectivity issues:
Between 08h00 and 10h40 users experienced issues connecting to some Electoral Commission systems,
primarily those hosted in the Catalyst Cloud that impacted multiple external customers.
EC Systems and services that were affected:
• UVP/DVP
• Election Results
• Tupu e-learning
• e-Roll mobile app
• Digital enrol online
• Telnet Call Centre roll query app
Root cause is believed to be a security patch that was applied by Catalyst security provider Cloudflare in the
early hours, this still needs to be 100% confirmed. IT has pressed the importance of expediting the Post
Incident Report (PIR) to provide assurance going forwards. We have requested Catalyst to stop all further
updates and patches.
Comms &
GENERAL UPDATE:
Education
• Media release yesterday following the PM’s announcement containing a full timetable for the Port
Waikato by-election.
• Chief Electoral Officer interviewed today for Breakfast to air Friday morning; DCE Operations interviewed
for Pacific Media Network this morning.
• Media - attention is turning to the last days of voting. A media release on this will be shared this Friday,
before Election Day. Large number of requests for filming at voting places. Ongoing focus on the costs of
a (second) election.
• Our election advertising is running at its highest level across all of our channels with a transactional
message to ‘Vote now’ and motivational messages to ‘Make your voice heard’
Social media
• Ongoing chat and comments about EasyVote cards, rural voting places and voter ID.
6(c)
MetService
Saturday
Extended
North Island: Scattered showers in the west, with a period of rain spreading north. Cloudy periods in the
Forecast - 14 west, with scattered falls spreading north. South Island: Rain with heavy falls in the west, easing to showers
Oct
later. Scattered falls elsewhere clearing, but isolated showers linger in the south.