24 June 2024
Harris Leigh
[FYI request #27153 email]
Ref: PMO OIA 275-2023-24
Dear Harris Leigh
Official Information Act request: Information regarding Official Information Act
requests
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request, received on 6 June 2024.
You requested:
“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.”
I reiterate my decision set out in the response to PMO 240 2023-24 (PMO 240). The
information referred to in PMO 202 2023-24 (PMO 202) does not come within scope of your
request set out in PMO 234 2023-24 (PMO 234).
My response in PMO 202 addresses your request for information that supported the Prime
Minister’s statement to Parliament on 26 March 2024. Your request set out in PMO 234 is for
specific information about private dwellings and house building rates in specific periods. The
two requests, set out in PMO 202 and PMO 234, cover different subject matters.
I reiterate my reference in PMO 240, to the Ministerial Warrant being issued on 27 November
2023. If information was held by Rt Hon Christopher Luxon prior to him obtaining the
Ministerial Warrant on 27 November 2023 that information would not have been held by him
as ‘official information’ under the Act.
As mentioned in PMO 202 the Prime Minister when preparing for his appearance in the
House on 26 March 2024 he received informal advice and oral briefings.
It was noted, the “Prime Minister is usually given an oral briefing by staff before each
question time. The contents of any pre-question time verbal briefings with staff, or any
potential physical briefings, are withheld under section 9(2)(g)(i) of the Act, to maintain the
effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinion.”
You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under
section 28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
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