Following the Canterbury earthquake tragedy, and noting the ongoing work of the Canterbury Earthquakes Royal Commission (the Royal Commission), the Ministry of Business, Innovation, and Employment (the Ministry) decided to carry out a review of 1659 buildings that had some features in common with the defective CTV building.
The purpose of the review was to assess the buildings’ earthquake risk and resilience profile according to modern-day standards. This was because, although such an assessment was part of the buildings’ construction, nothing required this assessment to be updated when building requirements were later updated.
After inspecting local authority records, the Ministry compiled a list of 1659 buildings requiring review and advised each local authority of the buildings identified in its area, so the local authority could liaise with owners to commence the assessment process.
Ms Williams requested the Ministry to provide information about the listed buildings, particularly “[t]he list of 158 buildings mostly in Auckland and Wellington with columns similar to the CTV building”. The Ministry relied on section 9(2)(b)(ii) of the OIA (the commercial prejudice ground) to withhold the information.
Based on my investigation, which included providing Ms Williams with the opportunity receive and comment on my preliminary findings, I have formed the opinion that section 9(2)(b)(ii) provided good reason to withhold the information and refuse the request, and that the public interest did not outweigh the withholding. Therefore, the information is not required to be released.