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Roger Brown made this Official Information request to Winston Peters

Currently waiting for a response from Winston Peters, they must respond promptly and normally no later than (details and exceptions).

From: Roger Brown

Dear office of Winston Peters,

The '@NewZealandMFA' Twitter/X was used to make a 'post' in the morning, 2025-10-28 Central European Time, with the text "We...", referencing a post by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon about the new trade partnership agreement Luxon had made with ASEAN and claiming credit for Luxon's efforts. I understand this account is, on occasion, used by Winston Peters. Given the importance of trade relations with brotherly nations, and New Zealand's history of abrupt decisions made by political figures while tired and emotional:

1) Did Winston Peters make the post in question? While the Ombudsman has determined that "information which is known to an agency, but which has not yet been recorded in writing
or otherwise" is subject to the OIA (https://www.ombudsman.parliament.nz/site...), I appreciate that Peters may not remember if he did or not, and that is obviously a perfectly acceptable answer.
2) As of 31 October 2025, are there any rules or guidance about under which circumstances Peters can or should use the account? I.e. hours of the day, BAC levels, prescriptions, etc.

Yours faithfully,
Roger Brown

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From: Winston Peters (MIN)
Winston Peters

Dear Correspondent

Thank you for contacting Rt Hon Winston Peters, Minister of Foreign
Affairs, Minister for Racing and Minister for Rail.

Minister Peters considers all correspondence important and appreciates you
taking the time to write.

Please note that since Minister Peters receives a large amount of
correspondence, it is not always possible to personally reply to all
emails.

The following guidelines apply:

· Invitations and requests to meet with Minister Peters will be processed
as soon as possible and a staff member will be in contact with you in due
course.

· Media queries will be responded to by a staff member.

· Requests for official information will be managed in accordance with
provisions of the Official Information Act 1982, which may include
transfer to a more relevant Minister or agency.

· If your email falls outside of Minister's Peters portfolio
responsibilities, expresses a personal view, or is copied to multiple
Members of Parliament, then your opinion will be noted and your
correspondence may be transferred to another office, or there
may be no further response to you.

· If your correspondence is to the Minister as the Member of Parliament or
Party Leader of New Zealand First, this may be referred to the New Zealand
First Leader’s office.

(If your invitation or meeting request is accepted - please note
information about meetings related to the Ministers’ portfolios will be
proactively released (this does not include personal or constituency
matters). For each meeting in scope, the summary would
list: date, time (start and finish), brief description, location, who the
meeting was with, and the portfolio. If you attend a meeting with the
Minister on behalf of an organisation, the name of the organisation will
be released. If you are a senior staff
member at an organisation, or meet with the Minister in your personal
capacity, your name may also be released. The location of the meeting will
be released, unless it is a private residence. The proactive release will
be consistent with the provisions in
the Official Information Act, including privacy considerations. Under the
Privacy Act 1993 you have the right to ask for a copy of any personal
information we hold about you, and to ask for it to be corrected if you
think it is wrong. If you’d like to ask
for a copy of your information, or to have it corrected, or are concerned
about the release of your information in the meeting disclosure, please
contact the sender. You can read more about the proactive release policy
at https://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Releas...
)

(Please note that this acknowledgement is an automatically generated
email.)

Regards

The Office of Rt Hon Winston Peters

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From: Winston Peters (MIN)
Winston Peters


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12K Download


Dear Roger Brown,

 

I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request dated
4 November 2025, in which you requested the following:

 

              “The ‘@NewZealandMFA’ Twitter/X was used to make a ‘post’ in
the morning, 2025-10-28 Central European Time, with the text “We…,
referencing

a post by Prime Minister Christopher Luxon about the new trade partnership
agreement Luxon had made with ASEAN and claiming credit for Luxon’s
efforts. I understand this account is, on occasion, used by Winston
Peters. Given the importance of trade relations with brotherly nations,
and New Zealand’s history of abrupt decisions made by political figures
while tired and emotional:

 1. Did Winston Peters make the post in question? While the Ombudsman has
determined that "information which is known to an agency, but which
has not yet been recorded in writing or otherwise" is subject to the
OIA
([1]https://urldefense.com/v3/__https://www....
), I appreciate that Peters may not remember if he did or not, and
that is obviously a perfectly acceptable answer.

 

 2. As of 31 October 2025, are there any rules or guidance about under
which circumstances Peters can or should use the account? I.e. hours
of the day, BAC levels, prescriptions, etc.”

 

We received your request on 4 November 2025. We will endeavour to respond
to your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 2
December 2025, being 20 working days after the day your request was
received. If we are unable to respond to your request by then, we will
notify you of an extension of that timeframe.

 

If you have any queries, please feel free to contact our office. If any
additional factors come to light which are relevant to your request,
please do not hesitate to contact us so that these can be taken into
account.

 

Kind Regards,

Private Secretary

 

 

Office of Rt Hon Winston Peters
Minister of Foreign Affairs |

Minister for Racing |

Minister for Rail

Private Bag 18041, Parliament Buildings, Wellington 6160, New Zealand

 

 

References

Visible links
1. https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.o...

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