Act governing freedom of information in New Zealand
Official Information Act 1982
New Zealand Parliament
Long title
An Act to make official information more freely available, to provide for proper access by each person to official information relating to that person, to protect official information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the preservation of personal privacy, to establish procedures for the achievement of those purposes, and to repeal the Official Secrets Act 1951
Citation
1982 No. 156
Territorial extent
New Zealand
Royal assent
17 December 1982
Commenced
1 July 1983
Administered by
Minister of Justice
Introduced by
Jim McLay
Repeals
Official Secrets Act 1951
Amended by
1987,[1] 2003,[2] 2015[3]
Related legislation
Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987
Status: Current legislation
The Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) is an Act of the New Zealand Parliament which creates a public right to access information held by government bodies. It is New Zealand's primary freedom of information law and has become an important part of New Zealand's constitutional framework.
The guiding principle of the Act is that information should be made available unless there is good reason for withholding it.[4] Requests to Government Departments or State agencies for information must be answered "as soon as reasonably practicable", and within 20 working days.[5] If an agency declines to provide the information, it must provide a reason and advise the requester that they have the right to ask the Ombudsman to investigate whether or not that decision is justified under the provisions of the Act.[6] Approximately 45,000 requests are made under the Act each year, with over 90% of them answered within statutory timeframes.[7]
There have been repeated proposals for reform and further improvements to transparency over the Act's lifetime, including major reviews by the New Zealand Law Commission in 1992 and 2012, but it has not been significantly reformed since 1987. The New Zealand Government is currently considering whether to hold a further review as part of its commitments under the Open Government Partnership.
^"Official Information Amendment Act 1987 No 8, Public Act – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
^"Official Information Amendment Act 2003 (2003 No 90)". www.nzlii.org. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
^"Official Information Amendment Act 2015 No 29, Public Act Contents – New Zealand Legislation". www.legislation.govt.nz. Archived from the original on 26 December 2018. Retrieved 26 December 2018.
^OIA, section 5.
^OIA, section 15.
^OIA, section 19.
^"Latest Official Information Act statistics released". State Services Commission. 5 September 2018. Archived from the original on 15 October 2018. Retrieved 15 October 2018.
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