John Luke
Nelson Regional Office
First Floor, Monro Building,
fyi-request-30728-
186 Bridge Street
Nelson 7042
[email address]
[email address]
Ref: OIAD-5138
14 May 2025
DOC-10248388
Tēnā koe John
Thank you for your request to the Department of Conservation, received on 15 April 2025,
seeking further information about the Kaiteriteri Recreation Reserve Board (Board) and the
latest round of Board member appointments.
You asked:
“..May I ask what sort of process was used for this appoint round? How do you select your
prefer member? Please supply relevant emails and communications regarding how you
select your member.
Have you done reference check on appointees? If so, how you done it? Have you done any
phone screening?
Have they had their first meeting yet? If so please provide me with the full meeting minutes”
We have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).
In addition to determining what information it holds, the Department must also decide how the
information will be released. Section 16 of the OIA allows information to be made available in
several ways in response to a request.
Information can be provided in a summarised form – particularly where relevant information is
being drawn or extracted from more than one source, or extracted from a source that also
contains other information that is out of scope of the request at hand. Please note the
Department has decided to provide certain information you have requested in a summarised
form, as part of some its responses below.
Your questions and our responses are listed below:
1.
“May I ask what sort of process was used for this appoint round? How do you select your
prefer member? Please supply relevant emails and communications regarding how you
select your member.”
Nominations were sought through a public process. Thirteen nominations were received.
Information supplied in the nomination forms was used to assess each nominee’s
suitability for appointment against the following criteria:
Affiliation to Kaiteriteri: Relationship/affiliation to the Kaiteriteri area
Collaboration: Ability to collaborate and work in partnership, particularly with iwi
Commercial acumen: Commercial acumen with focus on finance, operations, marketing,
audit and risk
Commitment to organisational culture: Commitment to promoting good organisational
culture, including wellbeing, health and safety
Governance: Prior governance experience (community-based organisation, boards,
committees, advisory groups, etc)
Industry experience: Industry experience within tourism, hospitality and retail
Legal and legislation: Understanding of legal and legislative requirements – including
statutory, commercial, and employment law
Public ethos: Strong enthusiasm to manage the Reserves for the benefit of the public
Recreation & conservation experience: Experience in managing recreational experiences
and conservation, historic and cultural values
Strategic planning: Strong strategic planning and visionary outlook
Treaty of Waitangi: Understanding of the Treaty of Waitangi and how it applies to managing
a reserve
Based on the assessments of suitability for appointment, the Department made
recommendations for appointment to the Board to the Minister of Conservation.
It is a requirement of the Cabinet Manual that appointments proposed to be made by the
Minister must be considered by Cabinet. The Minister’s proposed appointments were
referred to Cabinet’s Appointment and Honours Committee on 4 March 2025.
The Minister made decisions on appointments following this on 11 March 2025.
2.
“Have you done reference check on appointees? If so, how you done it? Have you done
any phone screening?”
Neither reference checking of recommended appointees nor phone screening was carried
out.
I have reflected on this aspect of the process, and in future, the Department may carry out
reference checks for recommended appointments to the Board.
3.
“Have they had their first meeting yet? If so please provide me with the full meeting
minutes”
The new Board’s first meeting was on 26 March 2025. The minutes of that meeting are
attached (refer to Item 1 in the Table below).
Item
Date
Document description
Decision
1
26 March 2025
Confirmed Minutes for
Released in full
Introductory meeting on 26
March 2025
2
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of my decision by writing to an
Ombudsman as provided by section 28(3) of the OIA.
Please note that this letter (with your personal details removed) and attached document may be
published on the Department’s website.
Nāku noa, nā
Martin Rodd
Operations Director, Northern South Island region
Department of Conservation |
Te Papa Atawhai
3
