From the summary
Mr Simeon Brown (Member of Parliament) made a request to the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) for correspondence regarding the behaviour or conduct of the Minister for Justice and Regional Development, and Associate Minister for Transport and Finance, Hon Kiritapu Allan.
MBIE explained the only information it held was a text message from a senior manager to the Chief Executive, and that it was withholding this under section 9(2)(g)(i) of the OIA in order to maintain the effective conduct of public affairs through the free and frank expression of opinions between officials.
During my investigation, MBIE further considered one aspect of Mr Brown’s request, and released some further contextual information about the text message.
Based on the information before me, I have formed the opinion that MBIE was entitled to withhold the text message itself under section 9(2)(g)(i) of the OIA.
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