Reviewing Conservation Entities against meeting
notification requirements under Part 7 of LGOIMA
7 May 2025
Governance and Performance team, DOC
______________________________________________________________________________
Context
In May 2024, DOC reviewed webpages of the 32 entities under the Conservation portfolio for
compliance with the Ombudsman’s recommendations1 relating to sections 46(1), 46A(1), and
51(1) in Part 7 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (Appendix 1).
This follow-up assessment sought to identify any improvements from the 2024 findings.2
• Section 46(1) 3 of the Act states that all meetings should be publicly notified, with the
dates on which, and the times and places at which, those meetings are to be held
• Sections 46A(1)4 and 51(1)5 state that all agendas, associated reports, and minutes of a
public authority should be publicly available.
NOTE: The legislation does not specify that this information should be available online; it refers
to availability “during normal office hours”. Section 51(1) further specifies “at the local
authority’s office”. As it is not possible to check the offices, and it is considered reasonable to
assume the information is provided online, this report relied on information in the Committees’
webpages. It remains possible compliance has been achieved through making the documents
available at public offices and/or public libraries.
In 2023, the Ombudsman reviewed the meeting practices of some local authorities to assess
compliance with the principles and purposes of the Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act 1987 (the Act). The review made recommendations for good practice, including:
• Councils should have clear and visible public statements about their commitment to
conducting business in a manner that is open, transparent, and facilitates accountability
and public participation
• Consider including a link to information about meetings and workshops prominently on
the council’s website landing page.
The Ombudsman’s recommendations on Agendas and Minutes were:
• Improve ease of access for meeting dates and times, agendas, papers, and minutes on
council websites, with a clear and simple navigation path from the home page
• Make sure agendas and papers are posted on council websites with as much advance
notice as possible before the meeting date
• All councils should aim to live stream council meetings and/or audio visually record
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meetings and publish the recording on their website
1 Open for business: A report on the Chief Ombudsman’s investigation into local council meetings and workshops |
Ombudsman New Zealand
Out of Scope
3 Subject to subsection (2), every local authority shal , not more than 14 days and not less than 5 days before the
end of every month, cause to be publicly notified a list of al meetings of that local authority scheduled to be held
in the following month, together with the dates on which, and the times and places at which, those meetings are
to be held.
4 Subject to subsections (6) to (10), any member of the public may, without payment of a fee, inspect, during
normal office hours, within a period of at least 2 working days before every meeting, al agendas and associated
reports circulated to members of the local authority and relating to that meeting.
5 Any member of the public may, without payment of fee, at the local authority’s office and during normal office
hours, inspect the minutes of any meeting or part of any meeting of the local authority (not being a meeting or
part of a meeting from which the public was excluded) and may take notes therefrom.
1
• Ensure full agendas, including reports, supporting materials, and meeting minutes are in
a searchable format for those accessing them electronically.
Our review of Conservation entities’ compliance
Out of Scope
• The regional Conservation Boards were the only entities to demonstrate all the
Ombudsman’s good practice recommendations.
See
Table 3 for more details of the 2025 findings.
Summary of findings
Legislated criteria:
•
As of 14 February 2025, 27 of 32 entities met all three elements of the legislated criteria
under s46(1) of the Act: 12 of 13 Fish and Game Councils (
FGC), 11 of 15 Conservation
Boards (
CB), the Game Animal Council (
GAC), NZ Conservation Authority (
NZCA),
Hauraki Gulf Forum (
HGF), and Game Bird Habitat Trust (
GBHT)
•
The dates of upcoming meetings were always made available, although meeting
locations and times were sometimes only available within the agenda document
•
The time and/or address of meetings were sometimes missing (further detail in Table 3).
Council
Missing time
Missing address
CB - East Coast Hawke’s Bay
X
X
CB - Wellington
X
CB - Chatham Islands
X
CB - Nelson Marlborough
X
Fish & Game West Coast
X
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•
Minutes and agendas are required to be available to the public, under 46A(1) of the Act.
However, 11 councils had not uploaded theirs to their website within the past six
months, at of 14 February 2025.
Council
Agendas not updated Minutes not updated
in the last 6 months
in the last 6 months
CB - Northland/Te Rūnanga Papa Atawhai O
X
Te Tai Tokerau
CB - Auckland
X
CB - Bay of Plenty
X
X
CB - Chatham Islands
X
Fish & Game Hawke’s Bay
X
2
Out of Scope
Ombudsman’s recommendations:
•
Only the NZCA and Conservation Boards had their meeting information in an accessible
place on their web pages – finding agendas and minutes for the remaining entities
requires multiple clicks or use of the search function
Out of Scope
Table 1: Advertising meetings and publishing records – 2025:
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Complies with s46(1) of the Act
Meets “good practice” measures for
regarding advertising date, time, and
publishing agendas and minutes and
location of meetings
advising meetings are open to public
Al 3
2 of 3
1 or none
Al 3 (new
2 of 3
1 or none
measure)
Conservation Boards
12
2
2
14
2
-
(15)
Out of Scope
3
Out of Scope
Table 2: Advertising meetings and publishing records – 2024:
Complies with s46(1) of the Act
Meets “good practice” measures for
regarding advertising date, time, and
publishing agendas and minutes and
location of meetings
advising meetings are open to public
Al 3
2 of 3
1 or none
n/a
2 of 2
1 or none
Conservation Boards
14
1
0
n/a
15
-
(15)
Out of Scope
Next steps
1. Send document to DOC stakeholders for review and comment
2. Present our updated findings to the Councils and Boards, with suggestions on how to
improve compliance and adopt good practice.
3. Review in 12 months, to monitor for any change in practice.
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Table 3: 17 February 2025 findings
Advertise date, time, and location of
Good Practice, recommended by
Agenda and minutes, requirement
Requirement 26ZD(7) of Conservation
meeting, requirement s46(1) of
Ombudsman (not required to be
s46A(1) and s51(1) of LGOIMA
Meeting held to present Annual
LGOIMA (not necessarily on website)
published on website)
(not necessarily on website however)
Report and Financial statement
Mentions
Timely
Info on
public
agendas
landing
Last agenda on
Last minutes on
Date
Time
Address
meeting
and papers
page*
website
website
Recorded on webpage
CB - Te Hiku o Te Ika
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Feb 2025
Feb 2025
n/a
CB - Northland/Te Rūnanga Papa Atawhai O
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Feb 2025
Mar 2024
n/a
Te Tai Tokerau
CB - Auckland
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Dec 2024
Jun 2024
n/a
CB – Waikato
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Dec 2024
Oct 2024
n/a
CB - Bay of Plenty
✓
✓
✓
✓
X
✓
Feb 2024
Feb 2024
n/a
CB - Tongariro Taupō
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Jan 2025
Jan 2025
n/a
CB - Taranaki/Whanganui
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Nov 2024
Sep 2024
n/a
CB - East Coast Hawke’s Bay
✓
X
X
✓
✓
✓
Feb 2025
Oct 2024
n/a
CB – Wellington
✓
✓
X
✓
✓
✓
Nov 2024
Oct 2024
n/a
CB - Chatham Islands
✓
✓
X
✓
✓
✓
Oct 2024
July 2024
n/a
CB - Nelson Marlborough
✓
X
X
✓
✓
✓
Nov 2024
Sep 2024
n/a
CB - West Coast Tai Poutini
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Nov 2024
Sep 2024
n/a
CB - Canterbury Aoraki
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Dec 2024
Oct 2024
n/a
CB - Otago
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Feb 2025
Oct 2024
n/a
CB – Southland
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
✓
Feb 2025
Oct 2024
n/a
Out of Scope
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Out of Scope
*Meeting information is on internet page, not only in the agenda
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Appendix 1: Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act
1987, Part 7
46
Meetings of local authorities to be publicly notified
(1) Subject to subsection (2), every local authority shall, not more than 14 days and not less than
5 days before the end of every month, cause to be publicly notified a list of all meetings of
that local authority scheduled to be held in the following month, together with the dates on
which, and the times and places at which, those meetings are to be held.
(2) Where any meeting of a local authority is to be held on or after the 21st day of any month, the
local authority may, instead of causing that meeting to be publicly notified in accordance with
subsection (1), cause that meeting to be publicly notified not more than 10 nor less than 5
working days before the day on which the meeting is to be held.
(3) If an extraordinary or emergency meeting of a local authority is called and cannot be publicly
notified in the manner required or permitted by subsections (1) and (2), the local authority
must cause that meeting and the general nature of business to be transacted at that
meeting—
(a) to be publicly notified as soon as practicable before the meeting is to be held; or
(b) if it is not practicable to publish a notice in newspapers before the meeting, to be
notified as soon as practicable on the local authority’s Internet site and in any other
manner that is reasonable in the circumstances.
(4)
[Repealed] (5) No meeting of any local authority shall be invalid merely because that meeting was not
publicly notified in accordance with this section.
(6) Where a local authority becomes aware that any meeting of that local authority has not been
publicly notified in accordance with this section, that local authority shall, as soon as
practicable, give public notice that that meeting was not so notified, and shall, in that
notice,—
(a) state the general nature of the business transacted at that meeting; and
(b) give the reasons why that meeting was not so notified.
(7) Nothing in subsections (1) to (6) applies to a board constituted under subpart 5 of Part 3 of
the Education and Training Act 2020, but every board must take all reasonable steps to ensure
that parents (within the meaning of that Act) of students enrolled at schools that the board
administers can readily find out, within a reasonable time before those meetings, where and
when meetings of the board are to be held.
(8) Nothing in this section applies to—
(a) the New Zealand Conservation Authority established under section 6A of the
Conservation Act 1987:
(b)
[Repealed] (c)
Provincial Patriotic Councils:
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(d) the National Animal Ethics Advisory Committee established by section 62 of the Animal
Welfare Act 1999:
(e) the National Animal Welfare Advisory Committee established by section 56 of the
Animal Welfare Act 1999.
46A Availability of agendas and reports
(1)
Subject to subsections (6) to (10), any member of the public may, without payment of a fee,
inspect, during normal office hours, within a period of at least 2 working days before every
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meeting, all agendas and associated reports circulated to members of the local authority and
relating to that meeting.
(2)
Subject to subsections (6) to (10), the agendas—
(a)
shall be available for inspection under subsection (1) at the public offices of the local
authority (including service delivery centres) and the public libraries under the
authority’s control; and
(b)
shall be accompanied by either—
(i)
the associated reports; or
(ii)
a notice specifying the places at which the associated reports may be inspected
under subsection (1).
(3)
Subject to subsections (6) to (10), the associated reports shall be available for inspection
under subsection (1) at the public offices of the local authority.
(4)
Any member of the public may take notes from any agenda or report inspected by that
member of the public under subsection (1).
(5)
Every member of the public who inspects an agenda or report made available under
subsection (1) and who requests a copy of any part of any such agenda or report and tenders
the prescribed amount (if any) shall be given such a copy as soon as practicable.
(6)
Where a meeting is an extraordinary meeting called pursuant to a resolution of the local
authority, the local authority must cause the agenda and any associated reports to be made
available as soon as is reasonable in the circumstances.
(7)
An item that is not on the agenda for a meeting may be dealt with at the meeting if—
(a)
the local authority by resolution so decides; and
(b)
the presiding member explains at the meeting at a time when it is open to the public,—
(i)
the reason why the item is not on the agenda; and
(ii)
the reason why the discussion of the item cannot be delayed until a subsequent
meeting.
(7A) Where an item is not on the agenda for a meeting,—
(a)
that item may be discussed at that meeting if—
(i)
that item is a minor matter relating to the general business of the local authority;
and
(ii)
the presiding member explains at the beginning of the meeting, at a time when it
is open to the public, that the item will be discussed at the meeting; but
(b)
no resolution, decision, or recommendation may be made in respect of that item except
to refer that item to a subsequent meeting of the local authority for further discussion.
(8)
The chief executive may exclude from the reports made available under subsection (1),
reports or items from reports that he or she reasonably expects the meeting to discuss with
the public excluded.
(9)
The chief executive shall indicate on each agenda the items that he or she reasonably expects
the meeting to discuss with the public excluded.
(10) Where agendas and associated reports are for meetings of community boards, it shall be
sufficient for the purposes of this section that they be available for public viewing at the main
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office of the local authority and those service delivery centres and public libraries, if any,
under the control of the local authority situated within the community.
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Right of public to inspect or receive copies of minutes of meeting
(1)
Any member of the public may, without payment of fee, at the local authority’s office and
during normal office hours, inspect the minutes of any meeting or part of any meeting of the
local authority (not being a meeting or part of a meeting from which the public was excluded)
and may take notes therefrom.
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(2)
Every member of the public so inspecting any such minutes who requests a copy of any part
thereof and tenders the prescribed amount (if any) shall be given such a copy.
(3)
Where any person requests a copy of the minutes of any meeting or part of a meeting from
which the public was excluded pursuant to this Part, the request shall,—
(a)
where the local authority concerned is named or specified in Schedule 1, be deemed to
be a request for access to official information made under this Act; and
(b)
where the local authority concerned is named or specified in Schedule 2, be deemed to
be a request for access to official information made under the Official Information Act
1982,—
and shall be dealt with by that local authority accordingly.
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