Dear Ministry of Justice and Minister of Justice Andrew Little,

I am writing to respectfully request the provision of all official information that the Ministry of Justice, and the current and or former Minister/s for Justice, holds in respect of the sale of the previously owned Crown Entity FairWay Resolution Limited, into private ownership, lead by the FairWay Resolution Limited Management team. I welcome your provision to me of all official information, including advice provided by, and or to the Ministry of Justice, and the current and or former Minister/s for Justice, to and from any and all parties associated with the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited out of crown ownership that both proceeded the sale and or came into existence following the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited.

I would expect that such information will be sourced from, but not solely limited to the official information generated from the Ministry of ACC's, current and or former Minister/s for ACC, FairWay Resolution Limited, Treasury, the Finance Ministers, and Treasury, together with all other parties which I may not mentioned and for which official information in relation to the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited applies and is held by Ministry of Justice, and the current and or former Minister/s for Justice.

I would also appreciate you providing to me within my request a copy of Ministry of Justice, and or former Minister/s for Justice, "Cost Benefit Analysis associated directly with the proposed sale of Crown Owned FairWay Resolution Limited, inclusive of Ministry of Justice, and the current and or former Minister/s for Justice, suggested/indicated sale premium for the purchase" that was completed prior to the sale of the Crown Owned FairWay Resolution Limited into private ownership for which any and all advice was provided by Ministry of Justice, and the and or former Minister/s for Justice, to any and all third parties associated with, or affected by the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited into privacy ownership.

I would also welcome confirmation as to whether the Ministry of Justice, and the or former Minister/s for Justice, factored into any advice upon the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited any social and natural justice rights of what ACC claimants stood to gain and or lose from the removal of FairWay Resolution Limited from Crown Ownership, including whether the Ministry of Justice, and the current and or former Minister/s for Justice, were aware that as a consequence of the sale of FairWay off the government books that FairWay Resolution Limited would claim that they no longer answerable to the statutory obligations of the Official Information Act 1982, for which they were required to comply with prior to the sale of the entity to a non crown owned private interest.

I have approached the Ministry of Justice, current and or former Minister/s for Justice, in this instance on the basis of former Minister of ACC Mr Michael Woodhouse's comments associated with advice sought from Treasury as reported in Mr Shane Cowlishaw's article of 4 October 2017 that appeared in Newsroom's website titled "Independence of ACC disputes entity questioned" for which can be located at the following weblinked address: https://www.newsroom.co.nz/2017/10/03/51...

The quoted passage follows from Shane Cowlishaw's article;

"Critics have noted that without a tender or consultation on the sale of FairWay, those people were again shut out of having a say on an issue directly affecting them.

ACC Minister Michael Woodhouse said he asked about the lack of a tender process and received advice that it was deemed unnecessary and would have achieved nothing.

FairWay was a small organisation with high risks to its revenue because it relied on contracts with ACC and the Ministry of Justice, plus the company’s leadership team had approached with an offer to buy, he said.

“My concern was to ensure the price was right on behalf of the taxpayer and the risks were managed in an efficient way and Treasury gave us the advice that said ‘Yep, we could go out to tender, it could take a lot longer, it would be more costly and we’d be no better off’ so the Minister of Finance and I were satisfied that that question had been answered quite clearly.” "

Public Interest:

I am an ACC claimant and as a party to the services provided by FairWay Resolution Limited, was part of a large group of affected persons/stakeholders that were not consulted by any party prior to the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited.

With the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited into private ownership I no longer have the ability, as I had prior to the sale, to have the statutory protection afforded to me of the provisions of the Official Information Act 1982, which incorporates protections allowing individuals like myself to be provided with;

- a right of access to certain official information, and
- a right of access to internal rules affecting decisions, and
- a right of access by person to reasons for decisions affecting that person, and
- a right of access to persona information.

With such a substantive loss of my previously held rights under the Official Information Act 1982, brought about by the sale, I believe that my request is reasonable and that I have a strong public interest case in being provided with in full all the information that I have requested formally today.

I thank you for your time and assistance and look forward to hearing back from you in the near future with the official information requested.

Yours faithfully,

David Lawson

These following details are provided solely to confirm my eligibility under the Official Information Act s12(1). Do not use these details for any correspondence or clarification about the request. For the purposes of OIA s16(2) my preferred way of receiving information is by email reply to the FYI.org.nz address from which you received the request. If you send correspondence to my private address you will be asked to re-send it to the FYI.org.nz email address, where it may still be published."

116a Lynwood Road,
Kelston,
Auckland 0600

Dear Alex Pickard,

Thank you for your response and advise that you have transferred my request to the office of Hon Andrew Little, Minister of Justice, under section 14 (b) of the OIA.

It would be appreciated if you could confirm to me as a new request under the OIA as to whether the Ministry of Justice holds any official information in relation to the information that I requested in my original request to the Ministry of Justice on 26 April 2018, which may have been later condensed in summary form and presented to the relevant Minister of Justice's either prior to and or after the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited, that is held by the Ministry of Justice, and for which the relevant Minister at the time would not have been provided full copies of such official information other than in summarised form, and so the Minister may not have been privy to the complete official information that I am seeking in regards to the sale process of Fairway Resolution Limited, and the official information generated throughout the process.

Thanks and kind regards,
David Lawson

Dear Alex Pickard,

Thank you for your most recent response to today's new OIA request.

With the Minister of Justice having held 50% of the shareholding of FairWay Resolution Limited prior to the sale from crown ownership into private ownership under FairWay Resolution Holdings Limited it will be interesting to see if the Ministry of Justice and it's staff, or persons acting on behalf of the Ministry of Justice, as stakeholders via their Shareholding minister were consulted and provided input into the decision making processes that resulted in the sale of FairWay Resolution Limited out from Crown ownership, a move that had financial, economic, ethical and social justice/human rights/natural justice issues at play.

I appreciate your timely assistance Alex.

Kind regards,

David Lawson