24 April 2026
Nigel Gray
Email: [FYI request #33800 email]
Kia ora Nigel
OFFICIAL INFORMATION REQUEST
I refer to your official information request of 24 February and refinement provided 23 March
2026 regarding: Forestry Industry – External Influence Over Public Communications and
Decision-Making.
Decision
Council has considered your request under the
Local Government Official Information and
Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) and has decided to:
•
Decline your request under
section 17(f) of the Local Government Official Information
and Meetings Act “that the information requested cannot be made available
without substantial collation or research”.
Response
• We have conducted a preliminary assessment, and it is clear that providing the
information requested, even with the refinement, would require the identification,
collation and review of a significant volume of information across a large number of
Council departments and functions.
• That assessment suggests that the
minimum timeframes associated with identifying,
collation and reviewing of the information you have asked for would be 120+ hours,
and that is only an estimate at this stage and likely to be higher.
• If you would like to further refine or amend your request, we would be happy to
relook at it.
• Depending on the outcome of any further refinement or amendment and
assessment of the same, we reserve the right to charge for provision of information as
per the Ministry of Justice charging guidelines:
https://www.justice.govt.nz/about/official-information-act-requests/charging-
guidelines-for-oia-requests/ and will advise you if this is necessary.
• If refinement or amendment is provided, it will be treated as a
new request for the
purpose of calculating the statutory timeframe for response (section 13(7) of
LGOIMA).
Review Rights
You are entitled to seek an investigation and review of this decision by the Ombudsman.
Guidance on how to do so is available at
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz or by calling
0800
802 602.
Noho ora mai
Donna Shaw
Democracy & Support Services Manager
Document Outline
