Dear Prime Minister,

Under the OIA I request information relating to your response to my OIA request your reference: PMO OIA 240-2023-24

Your response states:
You have noted that you consider the information referred to in the response provided to you on 24 April 2024 (ref PMO OIA 202-2023-24) (“PMO 202”) comes within scope of your
request set out in PMO 234. I have referred to the specific wording in your PMO 234 request
and, in my opinion, the information referred to in PMO 202 is not within scope of your PMO 234 request.

Under the OIA I seek any information you hold that informed your decision (set out above) to deem the information you hold from the request PMO OIA 202-2023-24 that set out relevant statistics from Statistics NZ as information you do not hold.

Understanding the information that informed your decision to deem information that you clearly hold as a matter of public record (see email from your Correspondence Lead Advisor dated 24 April 2024, available on the FYI website, that sets out the data held) as not information held by you is very important to understanding the processes of government and how you categorise information.

For clarity, the information that the email from your office lists includes:
1) an additional 156,300 private dwellings were added in New Zealand in the 9 years 31 December 2008 and 30 September 2017
2) an additional 214,200 private dwellings were added in the 6 years 30 September 2017 and 30 September 2023

Your response to PMO 234 would normally have listed the information listed in the email from your Correspondence Lead Advisor dated 24 April 2024 as information that you hold on the topic, as you appear to hold it.

There is clearly a basis for you forming the view that this held information is not held and understanding this basis, through your provision of the documents explaining the basis will serve an important public interest.

Thank you for your ongoing willingness to engage on this important topic that both goes to the processing of official information and the dramatic acceleration of house building in the last 6 years compared to the 9 years between 2008 & 2017 especially given your strong interest in continuing the acceleration in home building.

Nga mihi

Harris Leigh