News

The Inquiries Act 2013 provided a new framework for the conduct of public and government inquiries into matters of public importance.

But there has been some uncertainty about how it interacts with the Official Information Act (OIA).

A case note released today looks into a complaint about Child, Youth and Family, which became Oranga Tamariki – Ministry for Children, removing a five-day-old child from their autistic mother.

The Independent Monitoring Mechanism (IMM) is writing a report about disabled people’s experiences during the COVID-19 emergency.  

Five case notes published today concern complaints about children in care, and how these were resolved. 

One of the purposes of the Official Information Act (OIA) is to make official information increasingly available to the NZ public.

The Chief Ombudsman has published a new summary of his investigation into the State Services Commission (SSC)’s decision to withhold information about public service chief executive remuneration.

The OIA calculator is back online.

Thank you for your patience while we addressed the issues in the previous version.

OIA calculator

Information Access Commissioners and Ombudsmen from across Australia and New Zealand are urging government agencies to do more to make information available for the benefit of citizens.

Our newest OQR is out. In this issue:

The Chief Ombudsman has published a new guide in response to questions about the impact of the Parliamentary Privilege Act (PPA) on the OIA.

Public awareness of the Protected Disclosures Act (PDA) is very low, according to research undertaken on behalf of the Ombudsman.

The Chief Ombudsman has published a new tranche of guidance on the OIA. There are two new guides on the commercial and negotiations withholding grounds and one guide on how the OIA applies to information about public tender processes.

Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier is welcoming the opportunity to make a positive impact on the lives of children and young people within the state care and youth justice system.