Ministry for Primary Industries - Official information compliance and practice

Introduction

In September 2025, we began an investigation into the Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI), as part of our regular program of proactive investigations into official information compliance and practice. MPI is one of five agencies selected – we also examined the Civil Aviation Authority, Inland Revenue, Ministry for the Environment, and the Ministry for Regulation.

This report sets out our observations on how MPI meets the requirements and purposes of the OIA against our indicators of good practice. Our investigation focussed on the dimensions of leadership and culture, and performing monitoring and learning, and the interaction between them. 

An agency’s culture around transparency, openness, and the strength of its OIA practices flows from the attitudes, messaging, and actions of its senior leaders, and particularly those of the Chief Executive. It is our expectation that leaders make clear, regular statements to staff and to the public in support of the principle and purposes of official information legislation, and of the importance of openness more generally.

Accurate performance reporting is also crucial to respond to demands and reprioritise when required. Through regular reporting, senior leaders can oversee the agency’s practice and compliance with the OIA, the effectiveness of its structures, resources, capacity and capability. Any issues identified that risk the agency’s ability to comply with the OIA should be actively considered and addressed and, in effect, create a feedback loop.

We would like to extend thanks to the Ministry for the positive and open way it engaged with this investigation. In particular, our thanks to those staff members who took the time to meet with the investigators; completed the staff survey and liaised with our office throughout the investigation. We greatly value their contribution to this investigation.