7 April 2025
O Fernandez
[FYI request #30544 email]
Ref: PMO OIA 361-2024-25
Dear O Fernandez
Official Information Act request: Prime Minister's visit to India
Thank you for your request made under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act), received
on 27 March 2025. You requested:
“
1) Kindly provide details of the total expense of this visit to India. This include
cost of Air travel, accommodation, food & beaverages, gifts, events, immigration
costs, and any other expennses not mentioned above.
2) Kindly provide the details of Individual expenses of the whole India visit of
delegation that includes Honourable Prime Minsiter, other ministers, Members of
Parliament, and each members of delegations. Expenses to include travel costs,
accommodation, food and beverages, site visits, gifts, and any other expenses
not mentioned here.
3) Kindly provide the list of people included in 'Community delegation of
Prominent Kiwi Indians' that were part of Honourable Prime Minister's delegation
to India. Kindly provide the details of procedure and criteria of selecting the
'Community delegation of Prominent Kiwi Indians' that accompanied Honourable
Prime Minister to India.
4) It is understood the Honourable Prime Minister's delegation also included
representatives of ''Trade and Investment, and Ethnic Communities'. Kindly
provide names of the individuals travelled with Honourable Prime Minister, as
representatives of 'Trade and Investment, and Ethnic Communities'. Kindly
provide the deatiled process involved in selecting these representatives.”
Parts one and two
I have interpreted part one of this request as being for the total finalised costs of the Prime
Minister’s visit to India for:
1. the Prime Minister (PM)
2. three accompanying Ministers
3. six Ministerial staff (three staff members from this office, and one staff member from
each of the other three Ministers’ offices)
4. four Members of Parliament (MPs); and
5. members of the business, community, and media delegations.
I have interpreted part two as being for a breakdown of the finalised costs requested in part
one.
This office does not hold information relevant to parts one and two of your request. I believe
that the Department of Internal Affairs (DIA) may hold some information relevant to these
parts of the request to the extent that these parts relate to the finalised expenses of the PM
and other Ministers. Accordingly, I have decided to partially transfer these parts of the
request to DIA under section 14(b)(i) of the Act.
Business, community and media representatives who accompanied the PM on his trip to
India paid for their own costs. MPs and private individuals (who made up the delegation of
business, community, and media representatives) are not subject to the Act, so I am unable
to transfer your request to them.
With regard to the remainder of these parts of your request, this office does not hold any
information related to the total finalised costs and breakdown of the finalised costs of the
PM’s visit to India for the MPs and delegation of business, community and media
representatives who accompanied the PM. Accordingly, I am refusing these parts of your
request under section 18(g) of the Act because the information is not held by this office, and I
do not believe it is held by or more closely connected to any other agency subject to the Act.
You may be interested to note that information about travel and accommodation expenses
for MPs is released regularly. This information can be found on the Parliament website here:
MPs' expenses.
Parts three and four
I have interpreted the part of your request for the names of individuals who travelled with the
PM as representatives of ‘Ethnic Communities’ to be asking for the names of individuals who
accompanied the PM on his visit to India as part of the community delegation. The names of
these individuals who accompanied the PM on his visit to India as part of the community
delegation are:
• Sir Anand Satyanand
• Narendra Bhana
• Ranjna Patel
• Sameer Handa
• Vijay Goel
• Kanwal Jit Singh Bakshi
• Simran Kaur
• Priti Ambani
• Bhav Dhil on
• Manisha Morar
• Ajaz Patel
• Brijesh Sethi
• Sakthi Ranganathan
• Rakesh Nauhria
• Sunil Kaushal.
I believe the part of your request for the details of the procedure and criteria for selecting
these individuals is more closely connected to the functions of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs
and Trade (MFAT). Accordingly, I have decided to transfer these parts of your request to
MFAT under section 14(b)(ii) of the Act.
I believe the part of your request for the names of individuals that travelled with the PM as
representatives of ‘Trade and Investment’ is more closely connected to the functions of New
Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE). Likewise, I believe the part of your request for the
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detailed process involved in selecting these representatives is more closely connected to the
functions of NZTE. Therefore, I have decided to transfer these parts of your request to NZTE
under section 14(b)(ii) of the Act.
DIA, MFAT, and NZTE each have the usual time limits from receipt of this transfer to make a
decision on your request.
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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