30 April 2025
Aaron W
[FYI request #30683 email]
Ref: PMO OIA 379-2024-25
Dear Aaron W
Official Information Act request: Information relating to previous request PMO OIA
374-2024-25
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request, received on 11 April 2025.
You requested:
“Please provide all correspondence in relation to this request:
https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://fyi.org.nz/request/30376-all-evidence-
relating-to-woke-appointments*incoming-121585__;Iw!!Asq5-
8xVch3Reg!ojp18aWJrzTju-
gcpjZGpaANMsPm63kwZTTqAA2haKP8hIUzE0Y_1-
d6AEC9jhbVBKlHgzqjxjdvigK_mKLJ4JVQshfJEhTQPPR2d2PA1YIF$
This request is intended to cover all commissioning, discussion about
response etc. This would also include information which is known to an
agency but has not yet been written down (so discussions between office
staff). I am interested in why this took 21 days to respond to, when the
information doesn't exist…”
Please accept our apologies for the delay in processing your previous request PMO OIA
374-2024-25. Regrettably, due to an administrative error, your request was not identified as
received and allocated within the statutory timeframe for processing. The delay in you
receiving your response was solely a result of the administrative error at the time your
request was received by this office.
As explained in response to PMO OIA 374-2024-25, the context of the comments made by
the Prime Minister in the article referenced in your original request was known. Key staff in
this office were able to confirm that no official information within scope of your request was
held by this office. As soon as your request was identified, it was confirmed that no official
information was held by relevant staff. A response was then commissioned, drafted and
approved on the basis that the requested information does not exist.
The information relevant to processing your original request is administrative in nature and
consists of one email between the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and the Department of the
Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) who provide administrative support when drafting
responses to official information requests. This email was sent from PMO to DPMC on 9 April
2025 at 11.43am. The email noted that the original request was missed by the office and
asks for a quick turnaround in response. The email included advice as follows: “There is no
official information. The PM was responding to media queries following on from comments
made by NZ First.“
I have decided to release this information in summarised form under section 16(1)(e) of the
Act in order to preserve confidence in the free and frank consideration of decisions when
processing responses to requests for official information.
I remind you that you have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review this
decision and any response you have received to an official information request, under
section 28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
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