Thank you for reaching out to the Far North District Council.

We have received your message. A member of our customer service team will
issue a reference number for your enquiry within 5 working days.

If your matter is urgent, you can contact our Contact Centre at 0800 920
029, which operates 24 hours a day.

You can also find what you are looking for by visiting our website:
www.fndc.govt.nz

Kind regards
Ask Us Customer Services Team
--------------------------------------------
This is an automated reply
--------------------------------------------

Kia ora Joshua,

 

Thank you for reaching out to the Far North District Council.

 

Your request has been forwarded to our Legal Services Department to action
and respond. Should you need to follow up on this matter, please use
reference number RFS- 4267943

 

If your matter is urgent, you can contact our Contact Centre at 0800 920
029, which operates 24 hours a day.

 

Nga mihi,
Zara 

Ask Us Customer Services Team

 

Joshua Riley

By email only: [1][FOI #32210 email]

 

RFS 4267943 - Privacy Act Request – Candidate Joshua Riley and affiliated
political party Sovereign

 

Dear Mr Riley

 

I refer to your request dated 3 September 2025 made under the Local
Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) for all
information and communications created between 1 July 2025 and 3 September
2025 regarding your involvement as a candidate in the 2025 Far North
District Council election and your affiliated political party Sovereign.

 

Because your request is for information relating to yourself, in other
words personal information, we have processed your request as a privacy
request under the Privacy Act 2020 rather than as a LGOIMA request.  We
note that to undertake a comprehensive search of all potential records
held by all council staff and elected members that refer to you, your
candidacy, and your affiliated political party Sovereign, would involve a
resource intensive manual search exercise which we would be unlikely to be
in a position to complete prior to the end of the current election.

 

Rather than seeking to extend the deadline for responding to your request,
in the interests of responding in a timely manner, we asked all staff
regularly dealing with matters relating to the conduct of the current
council election, including election complaints, elections administration,
signage and responses to official information requests, to review all of
their email correspondence between 1 July 2025 and 3 September 2025 for
any references to you, your candidacy and your affiliated political party
Sovereign.  The relevant staff included the Chief Executive, the CE’s
Executive Assistant, staff in the Elections Team, staff in the Legal
Services and LGOIMA teams, the Manager of Democracy Services, the Manager
of Compliance, the Monitoring Team and the Manager of Communications and
Engagement.

 

None of the staff in question were able to locate any correspondence or
other information that references to you, your candidacy, and your
affiliated political party Sovereign, other than in the context of the
contact details/ candidate details provided by you to Council as an
election candidate.  This includes your email address which contains the
words sovereign.  No substantive references to you, your candidacy and
your affiliated political party Sovereign were located during these
searches.

 

If having reviewed our response, you have additional specific searches
that you would like us to undertake in relation to specific staff and/or
elected members please feel free to follow up with us and we will
endeavour to deal with your additional request(s) as expeditiously as
possible.

 

 

Nga mihi

Privacy and LGOIMA Team   
 
 
 
Te Kaunihera o Te Hiku o te Ika  |  Far North District Council
-------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pokapû Kôrero 24-hâora  |  24-hour Contact Centre 0800 920 029
[2][IMG] [3][IMG][4]  [5][IMG][6]  [7][IMG][8]  [9][IMG]

 

 

[10]Signature 365 Pixel

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #32210 email]
2. https://www.fndc.govt.nz/home
3. https://www.facebook.com/FarNorthDistric...
4. https://www.facebook.com/FarNorthDistric...
5. https://nz.linkedin.com/company/far-nort...
6. https://nz.linkedin.com/company/far-nort...
7. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbGkKa...
8. https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCRbGkKa...
9. https://www.instagram.com/farnorth_dc/

Joshua Riley

By email only to: [1][FOI #32210 email]

 

 

Tçnâ koe Mr Riley,

 

Privacy Act request: RFS 4272359 – Follow-up request of Council's response
to RFS 4267943

 

 

Thank you for your follow-up request to the Far North District Council
(‘Council’), received on 3 October 2025, further refining your research
for the personal information relating to yourself and your “Sovereign”
affiliation.

 

Your request is being considered in accordance with the provisions of the
Privacy Act 2020. A response will be provided to you as soon as reasonably
practicable, and no later than 20 working days after the day on which the
request was received.

 

Please quote our reference RFS 4272359 for any further enquiries in
relation to this follow-up request.

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

 

Privacy and LGOIMA Team

 

Te Kaunihera o Te Hiku o te Ika  |  Far North District Council

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FOI #32210 email]

Tena koe Mr Riley,

Privacy Act request: RFS 4272359 - Follow-up request of Council's response to RFS 4267943

I apologise for any confusion caused by my earlier standardised acknowledgement email. We have assigned a new RFS reference number to your clarifying request primarily for record keeping purposes. We will of course be seeking to respond to your follow-up request as soon as possible and are conducting further searches using the following search terms:
* Joshua AND sovereign
* Riley and Sovereign
* Joshua Riley and Sovereign
* Josh and Sovereign
* [email address] and sovereign

However, in the meantime it would be helpful if you could provide us with any additional information on the email trail that you understand may exist to assist us in pinpointing that correspondence.

Kind regards

Privacy and LGOIMA Team

show quoted sections

Joshua Riley

By email only: [1][FOI #32210 email]

 

RFS 4267943 - Privacy Act Request – Candidate Joshua Riley and affiliated
political party Sovereign/ RFS 4272359

 

Tena koe Mr Riley,

 

I refer to your privacy requests dated 3 September 2025 and 3 October 2025
for all information relating to your involvement as a candidate in the
2025 Far North District Council election and your affiliated political
party Sovereign.

 

I apologise for the delay in coming back to you on your follow-up
question, however, following the recent conclusion of the 2025 Elections a
number of other items of work have needed to take priority.   Your request
has been processed in accordance with Privacy Act 2020.

 

Following receipt of your follow-up request, I asked relevant staff, in
particular the Executive Assistant to the Chief Executive and Council’s
Deputy Electoral Officer, to conduct further searches using the following
refined search terms:

•       Joshua and Sovereign

•       Riley and Sovereign

•       Joshua Riley and Sovereign

•       Josh and Sovereign

•       [2][email address] and Sovereign

 

Two email trails have been identified that refer to your candidacy and the
affiliation to Sovereign.  The correspondence in question is associated
with the finalisation of the list of candidates nominated to stand in the
2025 Election and was sent between 30 July 2025 and 1 August 2025.  Copies
of the relevant correspondence are attached.

 

I hope this information is of some assistance in responding to your
request.  You have the right to make a complaint to the Privacy
Commissioner. Information about how to make a complaint is available at
[3]Office of the Privacy Commissioner | Complain to the Privacy
Commissioner or Freephone 0800 803 909. 

 

Nga mihi

Privacy and LGOIMA Team 

 
 
 
 
Te Kaunihera o Te Hiku o te Ika | Far
North District Council
----------------------------------------

Pokapū Kōrero 24-hāora | 24-hour Contact
Centre 0800 920 029
[4][IMG] [5][IMG][6]  [7][IMG][8] 
[9][IMG][10]  [11][IMG]

 

show quoted sections

Joshua

By email only to: [1][FYI request #32210 email]

 

Tçnâ koe Joshua

 

Official information request: RFS 4276140 – follow up questions associated
RFS 4267943, 4272359

Thank you for your information request to the Far North District Council
(‘Council’), received today on 5 November 2025. Your request has been
referred to the relevant Council department for consideration in
accordance with the provisions of the Local Government Official
Information and Meetings Act 1987 (the ‘LGOIMA’). A response will be
provided to you as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 20
working days (as defined in the LGOIMA) after the day on which the request
is received.

 

Please quote our reference RFS 4276140 for any further enquiries in
relation to this request.

 

Thank you for your enquiry.

 

Nga mihi

 

Privacy and LGOIMA Team

 

 

References

Visible links
1. mailto:[FYI request #32210 email]

Lea Zhao would like to recall the message, "Official information request: RFS 4276140 – follow up questions associated RFS 4267943, 4272359".

Joshua

By email only to: [FOI #32210 email]

 

Tēnā koe Joshua

 

Privacy Act request: RFS 4276140 – follow up questions associated RFS
4267943, 4272359

 

I apologise for the error in my earlier email. Your request should have
been acknowledged under the Privacy Act 2020, not the Local Government
Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA).

Please disregard my previous email. The correct acknowledgement is as
follows:

Thank you for your information request to the Far North District Council
(‘Council’), received today on 5 November 2025. Your request has been
referred to the relevant Council department for consideration in
accordance with the provisions of the Privacy Act 2020. A response will be
provided to you as soon as reasonably practicable, and no later than 20
working days after the day on which the request is received.

 

Please quote our reference RFS 4276140 for any further enquiries in
relation to this request.

 

Apologies again for any confusion caused.

 

Nga mihi

 

Privacy and LGOIMA Team