16 January 2026
Tēnā koe Doge
Official Information Act request
Thank you for your six emails of 15 December 2025, requesting information about
various topics relating to Disability Allowance and Health Practitioners. Section
18A(2)(b) of the Act allows the Ministry to treat your requests as a single request,
as they were received in short succession from you.
I have considered your request under the Official Information Act 1982 (the Act).
Please find my decision on your request set out below.
I am refusing your request under section 18(f) and 18A(2)(b) of the Act.
In order to provide you with the information you have requested, the Ministry
would need to divert personnel from their core duties and allocate extra time to
complete this task. The diversion of these resources would impair the Ministry’s
ability to continue standard operations and would be an inefficient use of the
Ministry’s resources. The greater public interest is in the effective and efficient
administration of the public service.
I have considered whether the Ministry would be able to respond to your requests
given extra time, or the ability to charge for the information requested. I have
concluded that, in either case, the Ministry’s ability to undertake its work would
still be prejudiced.
Further, given the topics covered by your requests, I do not consider consulting
you would remove the administrative burden opposed by the number of requests
you have submitted.
Publicly available information
You may wish to take a look at the Ministry’s website which contains a large
amount of information about the Ministry’s work:
www.msd.govt.nz/. If you are interested in operational policy guidelines used by Ministry staff when
making decisions on applications for financial assistance, this is publicly available
on the Map website:
www.workandincome.govt.nz/map/about/index.html Future requests
Please note that if we receive further large volumes of requests in short succession
from you, the Ministry will again need to consider refusing your requests due to
the large administrative burden they present.
The Aurora Centre, 56 The Terrace, PO Box 1556, Wellington
– Telephone 04-916 3300 – Facsimile 04-918 0099
I would also note two additional points to you now. Firstly, section 12(1) of the Act
sets out who is eligible to make official information requests under the Act. I note
we do not have your name or confirmation whether you are eligible to make a
request under the Act. Should you make further requests, the Ministry may ask
that you provide verification that you are eligible to use the Act.
Lastly, the Act also allows agencies to refuse requests under section 18(h) where
the request is considered to be frivolous or vexatious. The Ministry may consider
whether this ground applies, if we receive large volumes of requests in short
succession again.
If you wish to discuss this response with us, please feel free to contact
[MSD request email]. If you are not satisfied with my decision on your request, you have the right to
seek an investigation and review by the Ombudsman. Information about how to
make a complaint is available
at www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or 0800 802 602.
Ngā mihi nui
pp.
Anna Graham
General Manager
Ministerial and Executive Services
