30 August 2024
Chris McCashin
[FYI request #28030 email]
Ref: OIA-2024/25-0144
Dear Chris McCashin
Official Information Act request relating to Barry Young Correspondence
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request received on 13 August
2024. You requested:
Can you please disseminate this OIA request to all NZ MPS who were in office on 30th October
2023 including Chris Luxon, David Seymour, Winston Peters et al and the rest.
On the 30th October 2023 all NZ MPs received an email from Barry Young asking them to stop
the Covid-19 vaccine because he had identified serious safety signals with the vaccine due to
the work as an administrator he was doing.
I understand none of the MPs responded?
Mr Young was arrested on 3rd December 2023.
Can you please provide
- All of the MPS emails to police, internally, memos formal and informal, correspondence with
Health, Justice, Police, any specialist teams, other MPS any and all correspondence that MP
had associated with this topic prior to Mr Youngs arrest on 3rd December.
Please note any and all information that DPMC deems not in this scope should be provided.
Ultimately I want that MPS written correspondence about this topic for the month prior to Mr
Youngs arrest
The Act applies to information held by central and local government and other organisations,
including:
• ministers
• government departments and ministries
• crown entities
• district health boards
• state-owned enterprises
• tertiary education institutions
• school boards of trustees.
Organisations to which the Act applies to are set out in Schedule 1 of the Act:
Official
Information Act 1982 No 156 (as at 01 May 2023), Public Act Schedule 1 Organisations
(additional to those named in Schedule 1 of the Ombudsmen Act 1975) to which this Act
applies – New Zealand Legislation
Members of Parliament (MPs) are not subject to the Act, nor are emails from the public to
MPs considered official information. Therefore, we are refusing your request as it is not for
official information, as per section 2 of the Act.
4943860
Executive Wing, Parliament Buildings, Wellington, New Zealand 6011
64 4 817 9698 www.dpmc.govt.nz
If you are interested in information relating to a specific Minister or portfolio, I recommend
contacting the relevant Minister or responsible agency directly. You can find contact details
for all current Ministers and agencies here:
•
Ministers | Beehive.govt.nz
•
Central government organisations - Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission
It is also worth noting that on the date specifically mentioned in your request, 30 October
2023, the National, ACT Party and NZ First coalition government had not yet been
appointed.
Therefore, if you are interested in information relating to MPs that held ministerial portfolios
on 30 October 2023, electronic communications from former Ministers offices are held by the
Department of Internal Affairs.
We do not intend to publish this response on the Department of the Prime Minister and
Cabinet’s website.
Yours sincerely
Clare Ward
Executive Director
Strategy, Governance and Engagement
4943860
2