12 November 2025
File Ref: IRC-9110
Robert McDermott
[FYI request #31486 email]
Tēnā koe Mr McDermott
Thank you for your emails of 13 and 16 September 2025 to Te Kaunihera o Pōneke | Wel ington City
Council (the Council) requesting the following information:
1. As the Council now accepts that an error has occurred, and you are now seeking to correct
this so that it does not occur again. Can the Council confirm and ensure that the new contract
for Christmas 2026 and New Year’s Eve event for 2026/27 is a fair open expression of
Interest or tender as per the Operational Procurement Policy 2022 and advertised to the wider
event community and the team that made this error wil not determine the outcome of the
successful tender, given that the responsibility for determining and approval of the appropriate
commercial approach lies with the Commercial Partnership team. It is well known and
acknowledged in previous correspondence that your council team that has made this error
have a long standing relationship with Chameleon Events. This team should be removed from
any future tendering decision processes relating to these events allowing the many talented
creative events companies the same opportunities awarded on merit and compliance.
2. More information required. Al emails and correspondence from Wellington City Councils City
Events Manager regarding this matter. This information is missing from you previous
response.
On 17 September 2025, you clarified question two of your request to be for the following information:
a. Al emails between the Events Manager and Chameleon Events regarding firework
contractor, firework issues, firework suppliers and the service agreement for the New
Year’s Eve event held 2023/24, 2024/2025. Acknowledge a number of email have been
received, emails from the Event Manager have no appeared please provide. The WCC
Event Manager was involved in emailing authorities and firework suppliers for NYE using
WCC council resources around this time on behalf of the Chameleon Events and Pyro
International please supply a copy.
b. A copy of the service agreement for 2025/26 NYE and proposals/ Creatives to warrant the
engagement of Chameleon Events
Your request has been considered under the Local Government Of icial Information and Meetings Act
1987 (LGOIMA).
We can confirm that from 2026/27, Christmas and New Year’s Eve (NYE) events wil go for tender
and then through the correct commercial procurement process.
The 2023/24 and 2024/25 NYE fireworks were not organised by the events manager, therefore there
are no emails in scope. The NYE event was handled by another member of the team, which is not
uncommon practice. The fireworks and the due diligence regarding safety was managed by a Senior
Advisor for Event Logistics and Venues. For this reason, I am refusing question 2(a) of your request
pursuant to section 17(e) of the LGOIMA, as the document alleged to contain the information
requested does not exist, or despite reasonable efforts to locate, cannot be found.
Please find attached, as Appendix 01 to my response, a copy of the Service Agreement for 2025/26
Christmas and NYE events between the Council and Chameleon Events. Some information has been
withheld from the response pursuant to section 7(2)(a) of the LGOIMA, to protect the privacy of
natural persons.
As per section 7(1) of the LGOIMA, I do not consider that in the circumstances of this response, the
withholding of this information is outweighed by the other considerations which render it desirable to
in the public interest to make the information available.
As noted in the previous response (IRC-8838), a misunderstanding regarding the scope and length of
time of the contract for Chameleon Events is in place, with the 2025/26 Christmas and NYE events
being the final ones under the current agreement.
I trust this information is helpful. If you have any concerns about the response please contact
[Wellington City Council request email]. Alternatively, you are advised of your right to raise any concerns
with the Of ice of the Ombudsman at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or freephone 0800 802 602.
Nāku noa, nā
Danika Morris-Brown
Senior Advisor Of icial Information
Of icial Information & Privacy
Wellington City Council
Wel ington City Council | 2 of 2
