OIA25-0100
18 March 2025
D. Greenhalgh
[FYI request #30109 email]
Dear D. Greenhalgh
Thank you for your email of 17 February 2025 requesting information relating to Compliance
officers employed by Fisheries New Zealand, Biosecurity New Zealand, Te Uru Rākau – New
Zealand Forest Service, and Food Safety New Zealand. Your request has been considered
under the Of icial Information Act 1982 (OIA).
You requested the following:
I would like to request the following information in relation to enforcement/compliance
offices employed by Fisheries NZ, Biosecurity NZ, Te Uru Rakau, and Food Safety NZ:
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Uniform guidelines for officers, with images of rank insignia if possible.
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Rank structure for officers, with images of rank insignia if possible.
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National and Northland-specific organisational charts for enforcement/compliance
roles.
Please note with regard to the organisational charts, I am not seeking the names of the
people currently holding these roles, just the titles of the roles and how they relate to
each other in the regional hierarchy.
I understand these may be operationally sensitive documents, so if any information is
deemed not to be exempt from release, I ask this be redacted as opposed to the
documents being withheld in full, if possible.
Fisheries New Zealand
Fisheries New Zealand Fishery Of icers’ uniform can consist of field overalls (exempt from
epaulettes), knitwear, V neck jersey or heavy-duty field jersey, polo shirt, long or short sleeve
shirt, cargo trousers, uniform issues belt, black socks, MPI field jackets and wet weather
apparel.
The rank structure for Fisheries Compliance is Fishery Officer – Senior Fishery Officer –
District Manager – Regional Manager. Rank Insignia are provided to you as Appendix One.
Fisheries Compliance staff are spread across the country sitting in eleven districts that are
grouped into three regions as per the organisational structure. Fisheries Compliance
organisation chart is provided in Appendix One. Fishery Of icers report into the District
Managers as per this document and are located at the offices within the following link:
https:/ www.mpi.govt.nz/contact-us/mpi-fisheries-offices/.
Charles Fergusson Building, 38–42 Bowen Street
PO Box 2526
Wellington 6140, New Zealand
mpi.govt.nz
Biosecurity New Zealand (BNZ)
BNZ Compliance Officers’ uniform can consist of BNZ Cargo Uniform, BNZ Polo shirt or MPI
Overalls depending on the specific compliance activities being conducted otherwise they can
be non-uniformed when in office.
Rank structure for Biosecurity Compliance Of icer’s is Compliance Officer – Senior
Compliance officer – Team Manager Compliance. Please note, BNZ does not currently utilise
rank slides for these roles.
The BNZ organisation chart is provided in Appendix One. Please note, the current team also
includes a Team Manager Compliance role, which is not listed in the organisation chart.
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service maintains a team of Forestry Emissions
Trading Scheme (ETS) Compliance Officers. The rank structure for an ETS Compliance
Officer is Compliance Officer – Senior Compliance Officer.
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service does not have a uniform for the ETS
Compliance Officers as the roles are not field based and are instead based in Auckland and
Wellington Offices. Please note, while the roles are not based in the field, all Forestry ETS
Compliance officers are warranted and can enter properties under the Climate Change
Response Act 2002.
Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service also maintains a national team of Forestry
Of icers in the Indigenous Forestry team who regulate Part 3A of the Forests Act (1949) and
maintain the same rank structure as ETS Compliance Officers. This is a field-based regional
team covering the entire country based out of Rotorua, Christchurch, and Dunedin.
Compliance work comprises half of their role which also includes technical advisory work.
The team typically wears branded polos/jackets while completing their compliance duties.
The Te Uru Rākau – New Zealand Forest Service organisation chart organisation chart is
provided in Appendix One.
New Zealand Food Safety (NZFS)
NZFS Food Compliance Of icers are warranted non-uniformed staff. Food Compliance Of icers do
wear soft shell MPI branded jackets when undertaking compliance work in the field, to be easily
identifiable as NZFS representatives. As non-uniformed staff, Food Compliance Officers are not
visually ranked, and no rank insignia are available.
The rank structure for a Food Compliance Of icer is Food Compliance Of icer – Senior Food
Compliance Officer – Principal Food Compliance Of icer – Regional Manager – National Manager.
The Food Compliance Officers, in the Food Compliance Services team within NZFS, are
spread across the country with offices in Auckland, Hamilton, Tauranga, Napier, Wellington,
Nelson, Christchurch and Dunedin. The NZFS organisation chart is provided in Appendix
One.
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Should you have any concerns with this response, I would encourage you to raise these with
the Ministry for Primary Industries at
[email address]. Alternatively, you
are advised of your right to also raise any concerns with the Office of the Ombudsman.
Contact details are: Office of the Ombudsman, PO Box 10152, Wellington 6143 or at
[email address].
Yours sincerely
Michelle Morehu
Director Government Services
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