13 August 2024
Catherine WGJ
By email: [FYI request #27501 email]
Tēnā koe Catherine
Official information request regarding He Whenua Taurikura
I refer to your request for information under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act)
that was transferred to Te Herenga Waka Victoria University of Wellington on 16 July
2024:
“1. Staff at HWT**
1.1 A recent media article indicated that there are five staff members at the
HWT. Could you please provide a breakdown of these roles and their
corresponding annual salary bands (e.g., $50,000-$60,000)?
1.2 Do any of the staff currently hold Terrorism, Defence or Security
qualifications?
1.3 How were these staff positions filled? Was there a formal application
process? If so, when and where was this process advertised?
1.4 Are these staff members solely employed by Victoria University, or are
they affiliated with other universities as well?
1.5 Are the students all on site ? if not how often are they engaged with ?
1.6 Given that HWT is described as a scholarship management entity, could
you please explain the rationale behind having five staff members?
1.7 Are staff conducting research that is funded by HWT
3. Scholarship Awards**
3.1 Please provide details on the number of scholarships awarded to
students each year, and the universities associated with these
scholarship recipients (excluding personal names). HWT only have
Masters and PHD advertised on the website. Are there others?
4. Scholarship Application Screening**
4.1 Could you clarify the process for screening scholarship applications?
Are applications screened before being presented to the board, or does
the board conduct its own screening?
4.2 is there a priortisation of candidates for any reason ? charateristics -
gender, race, culture for example ?
4.3 If applications are pre-screened, who performs this screening? Is this
process subject to peer review or external audit? For example how is
bias managed.
5. HWT Associates**
5.1 Please outline the recruitment process for HWT associates.
5.2 Was there a formal application process in place? If so, were these
applications subject to peer review or audit? when were they
advertised?
5.3 Do the HWT associates sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as part
of their involvement?
5.4 Are the associates financially compensated for their contributions? If so,
could you elaborate on the associated costs?
6. PCVE Qualifications**
6.1 Do any of the HWT staff or associates possess qualifications in
Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE)?
6.2 If not have HWT engaged with someone who is qualified ?
7. Involvement of Postdoctoral People (Emma Rakete and Kyle Matthews) and
Costs and Overseas Conferences and Travel**
7.1 Does HWT engage with researchers beyond PhD students, such as
recent graduates like Ms. Emma Rakete and Mr. Kyle Matthews? If so,
could you clarify the nature of their involvement with the program?
7.2 Were these opportunities for Ms. Rakete and Mr. Matthews publicly
advertised?
7.3 Are there are post doctoral researchers with HWT?
7.4 Does HWT fund overseas conferences and travel for its staff, associates,
or collaborating researchers? If so, could you provide details on the
associated costs, the expected outputs or deliverables resulting from this
travel/research/projects, and the selection process for such funding?
8. Security Oversight
8.1 Could you describe the oversight mechanisms in place to ensure HWT's
research focus aligns with or is at least learning about national security
priorities? terrorism?
8.2 Do any staff have experience or qualifications in Security, Defence or
Policing ?
8.3 Are the students provided access to security scholars/experts?
8.4 Is HWT funding the 'Crime Media Culture journal? if so why ?”
As per our previous response, we have interpreted your questions as they relate to the He
Whenua Taurikura National Centre of academic and research activity (the Centre) as the
University does not hold information regarding the He Whenua Taurikura - National
Centre of Research Excellence Trust (the Trust). I have numbered your questions for ease
of reference.
1.1 A recent media article indicated that there are five staff members at the HWT.
Could you please provide a breakdown of these roles and their corresponding
annual salary bands (e.g., $50,000-$60,000)?
Roles at the Centre include Director, Project Manager, Research Fellow (x 2), Research
Assistant, and Centre Manager. Salary bands for the Director, Research Fellows and
Research Assistant are as per t
he VUW Academic Staff Collective Agreement. Salary
bands for the Project Manager and Centre Manager are as per the
VUW General Staff
Collective Agreement.
1.2 Do any of the staff currently hold Terrorism, Defence or Security qualifications?
These are topics for investigation that can be addressed across a range of disciplinary
areas. All staff employed by the University are suitably qualified for academic roles.
1.3 How were these staff positions filled? Was there a formal application process? If
so, when and where was this process advertised?
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will respond to this aspect of your request
in respect of the Co-Director positions. Research fellow and assistant appointments were
made on the recommendation of the co-Directors and were not advertised. Other
appointments followed Victoria University recruitment processes. In these cases an
internal appointments process was followed which utilised internal advertising on the
University’s intranet and University -wide communications.
1.4 Are these staff members solely employed by Victoria University, or are they
affiliated with other universities as well?
The University acts as the employer for the purposes of Centre activities.
1.5 Are the students all on site ? if not how often are they engaged with ?
Scholarship students are enrolled in universities across the country and are subject to the
standard supervision protocols of those universities. He Whenua Taurikura runs a
support and mentoring programme with monthly meetings for students.
1.6 Given that HWT is described as a scholarship management entity, could you
please explain the rationale behind having five staff members?
As per our response to your previous request, He Whenua Taurikura - National Centre of
Research Excellence Trust (the Trust) is separate to the He Whenua Taurikura National
Centre of academic and research activity (the Centre). The five staff members referred to
are employed by the University on behalf of the Centre to facilitate and carry out research
on preventing and countering violent extremism. The award of student scholarships is
only one part of its operations.
1.7 Are staff conducting research that is funded by HWT
Yes. Two postdoctoral research fellows are employed to work exclusively on PVET
research
3.1 Please provide details on the number of scholarships awarded to students each
year, and the universities associated with these scholarship recipients (excluding
personal names). HWT only have Masters and PHD advertised on the website. Are
there others?
HWT awards scholarships to students doing full length Masters or PhD study by thesis.
In total 24 scholarships, for both Master's and PhD, have been awarded between 2022
and 2024 to students from the University of Canterbury, Massey University, University of
Auckland, University of Otago, Victoria University and Waikato University 24
scholarships awarded total (VUW x 7, Massey x 8, Waikato x 1, Otago x 2, Auckland x 5,
Canterbury x 1). Scholarships by year are as follows:
2022 - 11 scholarships awarded
2023 - 4 scholarships awarded
2024 - 9 scholarships awarded
4.1 Could you clarify the process for screening scholarship applications? Are
applications screened before being presented to the board, or does the board
conduct its own screening?
All scholarship applications are assessed by the Centre’s Research Committee. The names
of Research Committee members and their university affiliations are listed on the HWT
website. The Trust Board approves funding for scholarships but is not involved with the
assessment of applications or the individual allocations of the scholarships.
4.2 is there a priortisation of candidates for any reason ? charateristics - gender, race,
culture for example ?
Scholarship applications are assessed solely on academic merit. There is no prioritisation
of candidates for any other reason.
4.3 If applications are pre-screened, who performs this screening? Is this process
subject to peer review or external audit? For example how is bias managed.
Applications are assessed by the Centre Manager to ensure eligibility in accordance with
the criteria outlined on the HWT website. All eligible applications are placed before the
committee..
5.1 Please outline the recruitment process for HWT associates.
5.2 Was there a formal application process in place? If so, were these applications
subject to peer review or audit? when were they advertised?
The first cohort of research associates were invited to join the research community
around the Centre in 2022 at the invitation of co-Directors Professor Paul Spoonley and
Joanna Kidman. There was no formal application process.
5.3 Do the HWT associates sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) as part of their
involvement?
No.
5.4 Are the associates financially compensated for their contributions? If so, could you
elaborate on the associated costs?
No.
6.1 Do any of the HWT staff or associates possess qualifications in Preventing and
Countering Violent Extremism (PCVE)?
6.2 If not have HWT engaged with someone who is qualified ?
These are topics for investigation that can be addressed across a range of disciplinary
areas. All staff and research associates have suitable academic qualifications.
7.1 Does HWT engage with researchers beyond PhD students, such as recent
graduates like Ms. Emma Rakete and Mr. Kyle Matthews? If so, could you clarify
the nature of their involvement with the program?
HWT engages with a network of active researchers around Aotearoa to undertake
research regarding preventing and countering violent extremism. A list of research
associates is available on the HWT website.
7.2 Were these opportunities for Ms. Rakete and Mr. Matthews publicly advertised?
As per above, research fellows were made by appointment on the recommendation of the
co-Directors. As such these positions were not advertised.
7.3 Are there are post doctoral researchers with HWT?
Yes.
7.4 Does HWT fund overseas conferences and travel for its staff, associates, or
collaborating researchers? If so, could you provide details on the associated costs,
the expected outputs or deliverables resulting from this travel/research/projects,
and the selection process for such funding?
As is common practice, the Centre provides research fellows with a small research budget,
which may be used for attendance at scholarly conferences, fieldwork costs, or other
research-related activities, such as hiring research assistants, transcribers. The fellows are
currently collecting data, conducting literature reviews, presenting findings at scholarly
conferences, engaging in data analysis, doing scholarly presentations of their work. As
well, they are writing for academic publications and will shortly begin preparing policy
briefs. To date there have been two international trips taken with a total cost (to date) of
$12,500.69.
8.1 Could you describe the oversight mechanisms in place to ensure HWT's research
focus aligns with or is at least learning about national security priorities?
terrorism?
The HWT Board has direct oversight of these matters and all work conducted at the
Centre is aligned with Board expectations and university processes and practice with
regard to contractual obligations. There are quarterly meetings of the Board at which the
Centre reports both its activities and its future plans.
8.2 Do any staff have experience or qualifications in Security, Defence or Policing ?
These are topics for investigation that can be addressed across a range of disciplinary
areas. All staff employed by the university are suitably qualified for academic roles. It
should be noted that the Centre’s brief is wider than experience in security, defence or
policing and includes scholarly expertise in social cohesion research, peace, conflict and
War studies (including military studies) and an understanding of political movements in
Aotearoa. The funder, the HWT Board and Victoria University have approved the
qualifications, experience and knowledge that staff bring to bear on research at the
Centre.
8.3 Are the students provided access to security scholars/experts?
Yes. Scholarship students are assigned suitably qualified academic supervisors in the
universities where they are enrolled.
8.4 Is HWT funding the 'Crime Media Culture journal? if so why ?
The Centre provided funding for a research assistant on a small fixed term contract to
assist the joint editor of the Special Issue to collate responses from prospective
contributors to the Special Issue and develop a brief overview of the literature.
You have the right to seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman of the
decisions made regarding this request. Information about how to make a complaint is
available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
If you wish to discuss this decision with us, please feel free to contact me at
[email address].
Ngā mihi nui
Blair Doherty
Senior Advisor, Official Information and Privacy
Legal Services
Te Herenga Waka—Victoria University of Wellington
