The New Zealand official information act

Abstract

The New Zealand Official Information Act 1982 is of constitutional importance, providing for public access to information held by government departments and organizations and Ministers of the Crown. Fundamental to the Act is the principle of availability: “information shall be made available unless there is good reason for withholding it.” The withholding provisions identify interests which may need to be protected and may provide good reason to withhold information. Not all interests have the same weight, and some may be outweighed by other public interest considerations favoring disclosure. The Act is information based not document based and requires each request for information to be considered on its merits against its principle, purposes, and withholding provisions. It provides for partial disclosure where some information may need to be protected but there is no good reason to withhold all the information. Major public service restructuring and the “commercialization” of many public sector activities have created difficulties in the operation of the Act, but these are addressed on an ongoing basis by the Ombudsmen in order to ensure that the purposes of the Official Information Act are understood and accepted by those to whom it applies. The Act is an integral part of the public sector operational environment and will be increasingly important as New Zealand moves into the mixed member proportional system environment for electing its Parliament.