I am making this request under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.
I am seeking information about the financial value of rates the Far North District Council has not collected on Māori freehold land (and any related categories of whenua Māori) as a consequence of the discretionary policy choices the Council has made following the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Act 2021. I am specifically interested in amounts that go beyond what the amended Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 strictly requires — i.e. the cost of the Council's choice to be more generous than the statutory minimum.
For each financial year from 2021/22 to the most recent completed year (and the current year to date if available), please provide:
1. The total dollar value of rates remitted on Māori freehold land under each of the Council's policies, broken down by policy, including but not limited to:
◦ ML21/01 (remission on unused/unoccupied Māori freehold land)
◦ ML21/02 (remission on Māori freehold land used for the benefit of the community)
◦ R23/15 (Enabling Housing Development on Māori Freehold Land)
◦ Any other remission policy applied to Māori freehold land or whenua Māori.
Please also identify, for each policy listed, which elements of that policy the Council considers go beyond what the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 (as amended) requires.
2. The total dollar value of rates postponed on Māori freehold land under the Council's postponement policy/policies, by year.
3. The total dollar value of rates written off on Māori freehold land, broken down between: a. write-offs required by statute (e.g. arrears on land made non-rateable by the 2021 Amendment Act, such as Ngā Whenua Rāhui kawenata land, marae and urupā), and b. discretionary write-offs made by the Chief Executive under s90A of the Local Government (Rating) Act 2002 or any other discretionary basis.
4. The total rateable value (and number of rating units) of Māori freehold land that has been reclassified as non-rateable since 1 July 2021, and the annual rates that would otherwise have been levied on those units had they remained rateable, by year.
5. The number of applications received, granted and declined under each policy listed in (1), by year.
6. For each year, please provide both: a. the gross total of rates foregone on Māori freehold land (remissions + postponements + all write-offs + revenue forgone from non-rateable reclassifications), and b. the net figure after subtracting amounts that the Council was required to forgo by statute (e.g. mandatory non-rateability and mandatory write-offs under the 2021 Amendment Act), so that the discretionary component can be clearly distinguished from the statutorily mandated component.
7. Any internal reporting, briefings, memoranda or papers to Council or its committees that quantify or estimate the rates revenue foregone as a result of the Council's policies on Māori freehold land since 2021, including any comparison against the statutory minimum.
8. Any methodology or working papers showing how the Council calculates "rates foregone" for the purposes of its annual report or long-term plan disclosures in relation to these policies.
Where possible, please provide the data in a machine-readable format (CSV or Excel). If any part of this request is likely to be refused, transferred or to incur a charge, please let me know in advance under s13 of LGOIMA so that I can refine the request to keep it within the 20-working-day timeframe and at no or minimal cost.
If any part of this request is unclear, I am happy to discuss and refine it.

Dear Far North District Council

Re: RFS 4296204 — Refined request under LGOIMA

Thank you for your response of 16 April 2026 inviting me to refine my request.

Before doing so, I note for the record that I consider this information to be of significant public interest. The Council's discretionary policies on rating of Māori freehold land directly affect the rates burden on all other ratepayers in the district. The cost of those discretionary choices — as distinct from what Parliament required through the 2021 Amendment Act — is information that ratepayers and the public are entitled to understand. I raise this because Ombudsman guidance recognises that the significance of information is a relevant consideration when assessing whether administrative effort is truly unreasonable under s17(f).

I also note that much of what I am requesting should already exist in some form, given that the Council is required to disclose rates remissions and report on non-rateable land as part of its annual report obligations under the Local Government Act 2002, and that the Council's own rating system must necessarily track the application of its remission and postponement policies in order to generate rates assessments.

Refined request:

For each financial year from 2021/22 to the most recently completed year (2024/25, or current year-to-date if readily available), I request:

1. Total rates remitted on Māori freehold land (all remission policies combined), as a single annual dollar figure per year.

2. Total rates postponed on Māori freehold land, as a single annual dollar figure per year.

3. Total rates written off on Māori freehold land, split only into two categories: (a) write-offs the Council considers were required by statute (e.g. arising from land becoming non-rateable under the 2021 Amendment Act), and (b) all other write-offs (including discretionary write-offs under s90A).

4. Total annual rates revenue forgone from Māori freehold land reclassified as non-rateable since 1 July 2021 — i.e. the rates that would have been levied on those rating units had they remained rateable. A single annual figure is sufficient.

5. A summary for each year showing the total rates foregone (being the sum of items 1–4), in which:
- items 1 and 2 (remissions and postponements) are treated as arising from the Council's discretionary policy choices, since the Local Government (Rating of Whenua Māori) Amendment Act 2021 required the Council to adopt a remission and postponement policy but did not mandate any particular level of remission or postponement;
- item 3(a) (statutory write-offs) and item 4 (revenue foregone from land the 2021 Amendment Act made non-rateable) are treated as statutorily required; and
- item 3(b) (other write-offs) is treated as discretionary.
To be clear, I am not asking the Council to undertake a novel legal analysis. I am asking it to present the totals from items 1–4 grouped according to the categorisation above, which reflects the structure of the Act itself. If the Council disagrees with any element of this categorisation, I ask that it provide the raw totals from items 1–4 and state which elements it considers to be categorised differently and why.

I have removed my earlier requests for per-policy breakdowns, application statistics, and internal documents and working papers. I am now seeking only summary financial totals that should be either directly available from the Council's rating and financial systems or derivable from data the Council already holds for its statutory reporting.

If any individual item above still presents difficulty, I would welcome the opportunity to discuss it rather than have the request refused in full.

I trust this refined scope addresses the concerns raised in your letter. I look forward to your response within the statutory timeframe.

Regards