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
[1]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

References

Visible links
1. https://www.dia.govt.nz/Proactive-Releas...

Dear Erika Whittome,

 

I acknowledge receipt of your Official Information Act (OIA) request dated
25 March 2026, in which you requested the following:

 

              “I note your announcement as Foreign Affairs Minister:

“Today New Zealand has informed the Director General of the World Health
Organisation via New Zealand’s Permanent Mission to the UN in Geneva that
in accordance with Article 61 of the International Health Regulations, New
Zealand has officially rejected thr proposed Amendments. New Zealand First
has always said that any decisions about the health of kiwis should be
made from Wellington, not Geneva.

We have fought on your behalf for these IHR amendments to be fully
rejected, we made a promise to put the national interests of New
Zealanders first, to maintain our sovereign decision making, and to push
back on globalist bureaucrats – and we have kept that promise.”

 

              Would you please share a copy of this official communication
that rejects the Amendments?”

 

We received your request on 25 March 2026. We will endeavour to respond to
your request as soon as possible and in any event no later than 24 April
2026, 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