Dear James,

I refer to your request of 25 July 2025. As consultations necessary to make a decision on your request are such that a response cannot reasonably be given within the original time limit, the University has extended the time limit for your request until 16 October 2025 under section 15A(1)(b) of the OIA. We will respond to your request as soon as reasonably practicable.

You have the right to make a complaint to an Ombudsman if you are dissatisfied with this extension.

Yours sincerely,

Landon Watt
Legal Advisor
Office of the Vice-Chancellor
Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland 

> -----Original Message-----
> From: J. Love <[FOI #31758 email]>
> Sent: Friday, 25 July 2025 4:34 pm
> To: legal <[University of Auckland request email]>
> Subject: Official Information request - Professional staff performance
> ratings including rainbow staff
>
> Kia Ora,
>
> I’m interested in how the University of Auckland is fulfilling its commitments to fairness, respect, wellbeing, and openness, as articulated in Taumata Teitei and the values stated in the University's equity policy. There has already been exploration of how these values are being applied via the University’s performance review system thanks to previous OIA requests. This system involves a score assigned to staff based on a manager’s perception of their performance and calibrated across the organisation. These have been very enlightening to understand how staff backgrounds correlate with performance review scores and have indicated improvements that can be made to this performance system.
> However these data did not include reporting on rainbow staff. This is another area that is worth exploring especially in how it interacts with trends observed in that pay band, gender, and ethnicity data that has already been requested.
>
> One way the university captures rainbow staff data is via the optional field: “Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?” as part of staff profiles. As this field is optional there is likely to be some under-reporting in the data that is provided to the University as an employer.
>
> For 2024 and all previous Tupu assessment years could you please provide the total number of each staff who received each grade in their end of year review for each possible answer (yes, no, and blank) to “Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?”
>
> And could you please provide this data grouped by each of: gender, ethnicity, and by professional staff pay band. These groupings should not be combined further (e.g. gender + ethnicity + performance pay grade + “Do you identify…”) to decrease the risk of identifying individuals within the dataset.
>
> Under-reporting in rainbow staff is frequent, and privacy for people in the requested groups is important. Ensure that specific individuals cannot be identified in the data. If a cell would contain 5 or fewer individuals please use appropriate disclosure controls before sharing the data.
> The preferred method would be aggregating groups where possible, for
> example aggregation of ethnicity data based on the groups and
> hierarchies used by StatsNZ:
> https://aria.stats.govt.nz/aria/#Classif...
> ovt.nz/cms/ClassificationVersion/mTd5SsI4Me5dMKf8
>
> Other options where aggregation is not possible or sufficient would be
> suppressing values that are less than 5, and indicating that these
> values have been suppressed with consistent notation, an example can
> be found in Growing Up in New Zealand’’s data output guide (page 6-7).
> https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63a70...
> 37523ab8ce1367_Data%20Output%20Guide%202025.pdf
>
> Using these steps allows you to adhere closely with section 9(2)(a) of the OIA, and be fully transparent and consistent with the aspirations in Taumata Teitei, all while also protecting the privacy of individual people.
>
> Please also explain any relevant caveats that should be kept in mind when analysing or interpreting this information.
>
> Please provide this information in an accessible spreadsheet format (.csv or .xlsx).
>
> If any part of my request is unclear or you require additional information, please don't hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.
>
> I understand that a decision on a request for information under the OIA should be made within 20 working days of receiving that request.
>
> Ngā mihi,
> James (J) Love
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>
> This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.
>
> Please use this email address for all replies to this request:
> [FOI #31758 email]
>
> Is [University of Auckland request email] the wrong address for Official Information requests to University of Auckland? If so, please contact us using this form:
> https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
>
> Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:
> https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers
>
> If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA page.
>
>
> -------------------------------------------------------------------
>

hide quoted sections

Dear James,

 

I refer to your request of 25 July 2025. The University’s response
follows.

 

For 2024 and all previous Tupu assessment years could you please provide
the total number of each staff who received each grade in their end of
year review for each possible answer (yes, no, and blank) to “Do you
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or
Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?”"

 

“And could you please provide this data grouped by each of: gender,
ethnicity, and by professional staff pay band. These groupings should not
be combined further (e.g. gender + ethnicity + performance pay grade + “Do
you identify…”) to decrease the risk of identifying individuals within the
dataset.”

 

The University does not hold the requested statistics breaking down Tupu
end-of-year review grades for staff by their answer to the question “Do
you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or
Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?”, and University systems cannot readily
create these statistics from current reports. For this reason we also
cannot provide the requested further breakdowns of these statistics by
gender, ethnicity or professional staff pay band. Your request is refused
under section 18(g) of the Official Information Act 1982. You have the
right to make a complaint to an Ombudsman if you are dissatisfied with the
University’s response.

 

Yours sincerely,

 

Landon Watt
Legal Advisor
Office of the Vice-Chancellor

Waipapa Taumata Rau | University of Auckland  

 

-----Original Message-----

From: J. Love <[1][FOI #31758 email]>

Sent: Friday, 25 July 2025 4:34 pm

To: legal <[2][University of Auckland request email]>

Subject: Official Information request - Professional staff performance
ratings including rainbow staff

 

Kia Ora,

 

I’m interested in how the University of Auckland is fulfilling its
commitments to fairness, respect, wellbeing, and openness, as articulated
in Taumata Teitei and the values stated in the University's equity policy.
There has already been exploration of how these values are being applied
via the University’s performance review system thanks to previous OIA
requests. This system involves a score assigned to staff based on a
manager’s perception of their performance and calibrated across the
organisation. These have been very enlightening to understand how staff
backgrounds correlate with performance review scores and have indicated
improvements that can be made to this performance system.

However these data did not include reporting on rainbow staff. This is
another area that is worth exploring especially in how it interacts with
trends observed in that pay band, gender, and ethnicity data that has
already been requested.

 

One way the university captures rainbow staff data is via the optional
field: “Do you identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer,
intersex or Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?” as part of staff profiles. As
this field is optional there is likely to be some under-reporting in the
data that is provided to the University as an employer.

 

For 2024 and all previous Tupu assessment years could you please provide
the total number of each staff who received each grade in their end of
year review for each possible answer (yes, no, and blank) to “Do you
identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, intersex or
Takatāpui (LGBTQITakatāpui+)?”

 

And could you please provide this data grouped by each of: gender,
ethnicity, and by professional staff pay band. These groupings should not
be combined further (e.g. gender + ethnicity + performance pay grade + “Do
you identify…”) to decrease the risk of identifying individuals within the
dataset.

 

Under-reporting in rainbow staff is frequent, and privacy for people in
the requested groups is important. Ensure that specific individuals cannot
be identified in the data. If a cell would contain 5 or fewer individuals
please use appropriate disclosure controls before sharing the data.

The preferred method would be aggregating groups where possible, for
example aggregation of ethnicity data based on the groups and hierarchies
used by StatsNZ:
[3]https://aria.stats.govt.nz/aria/#Classif...

 

Other options where aggregation is not possible or sufficient would be
suppressing values that are less than 5, and indicating that these values
have been suppressed with consistent notation, an example can be found in
Growing Up in New Zealand’’s data output guide (page 6-7).
[4]https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63a70...

 

Using these steps allows you to adhere closely with section 9(2)(a) of the
OIA, and be fully transparent and consistent with the aspirations in
Taumata Teitei, all while also protecting the privacy of individual
people.

 

Please also explain any relevant caveats that should be kept in mind when
analysing or interpreting this information.

 

Please provide this information in an accessible spreadsheet format (.csv
or .xlsx).

 

If any part of my request is unclear or you require additional
information, please don't hesitate to contact me as soon as possible.

 

I understand that a decision on a request for information under the OIA
should be made within 20 working days of receiving that request.

 

Ngā mihi,

James (J) Love

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

This is an Official Information request made via the FYI website.

 

Please use this email address for all replies to this request:

[5][FOI #31758 email]

 

Is [6][University of Auckland request email] the wrong address for Official Information
requests to University of Auckland? If so, please contact us using this
form:

[7]https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...

 

Disclaimer: This message and any reply that you make will be published on
the internet. Our privacy and copyright policies:

[8]https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers

 

If you find this service useful as an Official Information officer, please
ask your web manager to link to us from your organisation's OIA or LGOIMA
page.

 

 

-------------------------------------------------------------------

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #31758 email]
2. mailto:[University of Auckland request email]
3. https://aria.stats.govt.nz/aria/#Classif...
4. https://cdn.prod.website-files.com/63a70...
5. mailto:[FOI #31758 email]
6. mailto:[University of Auckland request email]
7. https://fyi.org.nz/change_request/new?bo...
8. https://fyi.org.nz/help/officers

hide quoted sections