17 December 2025
Aaron W
[FYI request #33100 email]
Ref: PMO OIA 639-2025-26
Dear Aaron,
Official Information Act request: [W] Prime Minister's comments regarding rates caps
Thank you for your Official Information Act 1982 (the Act) request, received on 2 December
2025. You requested:
“You recently said that Councils should “stop doing dumb stuff" during an
announcement on rates caps.
Can I please have a list of all of the "dumb stuff" you are referring to?”
There is no specific list of “dumb stuff” that the Prime Minister has said councils should stop
doing. Your request is therefore refused under section 18(e) as the information requested
does not exist.
In his 1 December 2025 post-Cabinet press conference, the Prime Minister gave examples
of rates being spent on nice-to-haves rather than must-haves. This included councils building
fancy public toilets rather than fixing the pipes or installing endless speed bumps rather than
maintaining the roads. You can read the transcript of this, and other post-Cabinet press
conferences, on the Beehive websit
e https://www.beehive.govt.nz/feature/post-cab-press-
conference. You have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate and review my decision under
section 28(3) of the Act.
Yours sincerely,
Cameron Burrows
Chief of Staff
