Level 2, Wintec House
Cnr Anglesea and Nisbet St.
Hamilton 3204
0800 86 22 84
info@tepūkenga.ac.nz
tepūkenga.ac.nz
7 October 2025
John Luke
By email: [FYI request #32306 email]
Tēnā koe John
Request under the Official Information Act 1982
I refer to your email dated 13 September 2025 sent to the Tertiary Education Commission (TEC)
requesting information regarding a historic news article that was released on Te Pūkenga website,
titled:
MIT and Unitec Subsidiary Board of Directors appointed, dated 17 March 2020.
TEC transferred your request for the following information to Te Pūkenga for response on
15 September 2025:
I am requesting that you amend the statement to reflect the accurate information.
Additionally, I would like to understand what steps were taken to verify the information before
it was published. Specifically:
What fact-checking process was fol owed?
Was the information confirmed with the individual concerned prior to publication?
Did Fale Andrew Lesā consent to or approve the statement that was published?
I would appreciate your prompt attention to this matter and a clear explanation of your
editorial process in this case.
We also note your reference to a previous OIA request to Oranga Tamariki, via the FYI website, and
the response provided to you on 11 September 2025.
This letter provides a formal decision on your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (OIA).
The decision
The wording from the 2020 announcement you refer to was provided by the applicant in question,
with the reasons for its intended use clearly outlined to each applicant as below.
Please refer to the excerpt below providing point 15.1 (d) from the
RoVE – Director’s Conditional
Letter of Appointment:
15.
Acceptance of appointment
15.1 Please confirm your acceptance of the terms of your appointment as a
Director of the Company by:
…
(d) providing a 100 word bio that can be used in the media releases and other
communications announcing your appointment (please provide this as a
Word document, or in the body of an email so that it can be readily put
into communications material). If you have any iwi affiliations, please
ensure any details are also included.
It is our understanding that the NZIST Establishment Board followed due process, including bona fide
and records checks, at the time of the appointments. For further details you may wish to view the
already publicly available OIA response document via:
https://fyi.org.nz/request/31732-fale-andrew-lesa#incoming-130854
We do note the link to Te Pūkenga news article is still live. We are not amending this historic
statement, but note Te Pūkenga is in the process of being disestablished. Al website content wil be
managed appropriately as part of its closure.
You have the right to make a complaint to the Ombudsman under section 28(3) of the OIA if you are
not happy with this response. Information about how to do this is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by cal ing 0800 802 602.
We may publish our OIA responses and the information contained in our reply to you on our website.
Before publishing we will remove any personal or identifiable information.
Ngā mihi
Gus Gilmore
Tumuaki | Chief Executive
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