DPMC query on specific keywords UAP related

N. S. Hudson made this Official Information request to Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Currently waiting for a response from Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, they must respond promptly and normally no later than (details and exceptions).

From: N. S. Hudson

Dear Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet,

I am writing to request information regarding documents held by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC), including subgroups such as the National Security Group, the National Assessments Bureau, the Risk and Systems Governance Group that contain specific keywords.

1. Keywords:
- "UAP"
- "Unidentified",
- "Unknown origin",
- "Drone"
- "AARO"
- "AAV" or "Advanced Aerial Vehicle"
- "Balloon" or "Balloons"
-"NORAD" or "North American Aerospace Defense Command"

2. Documents and Timeframe:
- Please provide a list of documents, including files, emails, memos, or any other relevant records, that SEPARATELY contain any of the the specified keywords from the year 2019 to the present date.

3. Format of Information:
- I request that the information be provided in a spreadsheet that includes the title or description of each document, along with the date of creation or receipt, and any additional metadata available.

4. Further Details:
- If the list of documents containing the specified keywords is extensive, I am willing to submit separate requests for each year or Keyword to facilitate the processing of information.

5. Fees and Costs:
- Please inform me in advance if there are any fees associated with processing this request. I am prepared to cover reasonable costs, if applicable.

I understand that compiling this information may require some time and effort, and I appreciate your cooperation in providing access to these records.

Thank you for your attention to this matter. I look forward to receiving your response in a timely manner.

Yours faithfully,

N. S. Hudson

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Tēnā koe, 

 

Thank you for emailing the Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet (DPMC), including the National Emergency Management
Agency (NEMA). Please note that for OIA (Official Information Act)
requests the period from 25 December 2023 to 15 January 2024 are not
counted as working days under section 2(1) of the OIA.

DPMC cannot respond to emails that are outside its scope. If the subject
of your email doesn't relate to the work of DPMC, we may forward your
email to the appropriate Minister or agency who will respond to you
directly. To find out more about DPMC's functions please view our
website [1]https://dpmc.govt.nz/.

 

If your correspondence is intended for the Prime Minister please email his
office at [2][email address]. Contact information
for other Members of Parliament can be found
at [3]https://www.parliament.nz/en/get-involve....

Common questions:

* Official Information Act (OIA) requests will be formally acknowledged
during office hours and actioned accordingly. For more information
about the statutory OIA timeframes please see
[4]http://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/.
* For job opportunities within DPMC see
[5]https://centralagenciesjobs.cass.govt.nz... use this
website to apply for vacancies. Resumes received through other avenues
will not be considered.
* New Zealand visas and requests for asylum are managed by Immigration
New Zealand. Please see  [6]https://www.immigration.govt.nz/. 

We hope one of the above links helps answer your question. Thanks again
and please take care.

Link: [7]File-List
Link: [8]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [9]themeData
Link: [10]colorSchemeMapping

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

[UNCLASSIFIED]
Kia ora,

Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) received on 5 June 2024, copied below. We will respond to your request within the statutory timeframes set out in the Act. If we are unable to meet these timeframes we will notify you.

Your request will be managed by the Ministerial Services team within DPMC. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us at [DPMC request email].

DPMC may publish the response to your OIA request. If we publish the response your personal information, including your name and contact details, will be removed.

Ngā mihi,

Ministerial Coordinator
Ministerial Services
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

E [DPMC request email]

The information contained in this email message is for the attention of the intended recipient only and is not necessarily the official view or communication of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, copy or distribute this message or the information in it. If you have received this message in error, please destroy the email and notify the sender immediately.

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet


Attachment image002.png
24K Download

Attachment Hudson reply letter.pdf
219K Download View as HTML


[UNCLASSIFIED]

Kia ora,

 

Please see the attached letter regarding your recent OIA request.

 

Ngā mihi,

 

Ministerial Coordinator
Ministerial Services
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
E    [1][DPMC request email]
 
 
The information contained in this email message is for the attention of
the intended recipient only and is not necessarily the official view or
communication of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. If you
are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, copy or distribute
this message or the information in it. If you have received this message
in error, please destroy the email and notify the sender immediately.

 

 

Link: [2]File-List
Link: [3]Edit-Time-Data
Link: [4]themeData
Link: [5]colorSchemeMapping

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The information contained in this email message is for the attention of
the intended recipient only and is not necessarily the official view or
communication of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. If you
are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, copy or distribute
this message or the information in it. If you have received this message
in error, please destroy the email and notify the sender immediately.

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[DPMC request email]
2. file:///tmp/Signature_files/filelist.xml
3. file:///tmp/Signature_files/editdata.mso
4. file:///tmp/Signature_files/themedata.thmx
5. file:///tmp/Signature_files/colorschememapping.xml
6. file:///tmp/Signature_files/filelist.xml
7. file:///tmp/Signature_files/editdata.mso
8. file:///tmp/Signature_files/themedata.thmx
9. file:///tmp/Signature_files/colorschememapping.xml

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From: N. S. Hudson

Dear Information [DPMC] / Bridget White - Executive Director - National Security Group,

Sorry I didn't realise that would be so big. I made the original request in the hopes that I wasn't going to be refused for "no info held". As requested I've narrowed the search field to be more specific, I just don't want to miss out on something related due to the narrowing. I've refined my request, I do not believe this should be too much admin as it is rather more specific and clear on what I am asking:

A list in the form of a spreadsheet, of any documentation recieved with content relating to "Balloon" or "Balloons", "Canadian Airspace", "NORAD" or "North American Aerospace Defense Command" From Feb 2023 to current. This is in relation to (Chinese) balloon and or Unidentified craft detection/shootdowns with or without recovery, over the Arctic, US or Canadian Airspace.

A list in the form of a spreadsheet, of any documentation recieved with content relating to "Langley Airforce Base" or "Langley AFB", "drone", "drones" From Dec 2023 to current. This is in relation to drone and or Unidentified craft flown around and or over the above mentioned Air Force Base in the state of Virginia, the United States.

A list in the form of a spreadsheet, of any documentation created by a NZ Government Employee or Contracted by the NZ Government, referencing either of the above.

Yours sincerely,

N. S. Hudson

Link to this

From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

[UNCLASSIFIED]
Kia ora,

Thank you for your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) received on 10 June 2024, copied below. We will respond to your request within the statutory timeframes set out in the Act. If we are unable to meet these timeframes we will notify you.

Your request will be managed by the Ministerial Services team within DPMC. If you have any queries, please feel free to contact us at [DPMC request email].

DPMC may publish the response to your OIA request. If we publish the response your personal information, including your name and contact details, will be removed.

Ngā mihi,

Ministerial Coordinator
Ministerial Services
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

E [DPMC request email]

The information contained in this email message is for the attention of the intended recipient only and is not necessarily the official view or communication of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet. If you are not the intended recipient you must not disclose, copy or distribute this message or the information in it. If you have received this message in error, please destroy the email and notify the sender immediately.

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

Kia Ora

Thank you for refining your request. There are just a few outstanding questions which would help us to respond to you please:

Searching our records for "balloon" or "Balloons" will give us a very large number of results - most of which are probably not what you are seeking. For example it could include anything from weather balloons to party balloons to the phrase "this has ballooned". Can you refine that part of your request? Are you happy if we just search the phrase "Chinese balloon"?

Similarly a search on "drones" will also return a very large number of results. An initial, very preliminary search on this keyword returned nearly 300 results. Partly this is because DPMC has business units that work in disaster recovery and management and drones are used in this context for assessing damage and checking for people or animals that need rescuing. Can you refine the drone search a bit more? Is there a phrase that would include the particular drones you are interested in that would narrow things down?

Can you also be more specific in your request for "any documentation received" - for example this will include everything sent from the public and from other agencies - such as emails, OIA requests, ministerial letters etc - which is a large amount of material to look through. Can you, for example specify senders, types of documents (eg policy documents, briefings to Ministers) and/or particular senders?

Regarding your last sentence: "any documentation created by a NZ Government Employee or Contracted by the NZ Government, referencing either of the above" - we only hold information created by employees of DPMC - we cannot respond for all government agencies.

Jo Watt (she/her)
Senior Ministerials Advisor
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

P +64 (04) 495 6694
E [email address]

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From: N. S. Hudson

Dear Information [DPMC],

"Drone(s)" and "Langley"
in the same documents from any government/intelligence/embassy/military source as a briefings to a Minister. Event happened in Dec 2023, but I said to 'current' as I wondered if there were any followups.

Sorry I'll swap out "balloon" for "object", but with the areas mentioned below.

"object" and "Yukon, Canada",
"object" and "Deadhorse, Alaska",
in the same documents from any government/intelligence/embassy/military source as a briefings to a Minister. Event happened in Feb 2023, but I said to 'current' as I wondered if there were any followups.

I was just trying to make things easier for you guys but it seems I haven't unfortunately, sorry about that.

Yours sincerely,

N. S. Hudson

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From: Information [DPMC]
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet

[UNCLASSIFIED]

Kia ora

Thanks for this refinement. Just to note, under the OIA a refinement
affects the due date for a request. Your request is now due to you on or
before 16 July 2024.

Regards

Ministerials Services
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet
 
 

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