The Official Information Act 1982 is intended to help New Zealanders to participate effectively in policy decisions and law making. It is also intended to provide the public with greater transparency on government policy decisions.

Proactive release policy

Our proactive release policy aims to create openness and transparency to foster public trust and confidence.
The purpose of this policy is to enable and support our agency in the proactive release of official information through website publication.

We are committed to supporting the principles of the Public Service Act 2020 and the Official Information Act 1982 by promoting open government and increasing the availability of information. Proactive release makes information more available and assists in public understanding of Māori Development and the role of Te Puni Kōkiri.

It is vital that we have a culture of transparency and accountability that meets the expectations of Māori and the wider public of Aotearoa regarding timely access to official information as a core principle of a thriving democracy.

The Government committed to improving public sector practices around transparency through the proactive release of information and requests made under the Official Information Act 1982 as part of New Zealand’s Open Government Partnership National Action Plan 2018-2020.

Responses published on our web site

We endeavour to publish all of its OIA responses on its website, after the response is sent to the requester. We will not publish your name, address or contact details. To view released responses click here.

Sources of information

Official information is information that is held by a government department or agency and is not already publicly available. Before submitting a request to Te Puni Kōkiri, you might want to check out the links below. The information you seek might already be available:

• Our work and priorities for Māori
• Our research and publications
• Our annual reports
• Legislation we administer
• Official Information Act 1982
• Directory of Official Information for all agencies

How to make a request

A request can be made in any form but the Act does require you to make your request with “due particularity”. This means you should be as clear as possible about what particular information you want.

To help us to help you, requests should include your name, postal or email address and, if you have a preferred method of receiving a response i.e. letter or email, you should let us know.

Being specific and providing as many details as you can about the information you seek will ensure your request can be processed as soon as possible. If any aspect of your request is unclear we will ask you to clarify it.

You can submit an OIA request to us by:

Email: oia@tpk.govt.nz

Post: Ministerial Services, Te Puni Kōkiri, PO Box 3943, Wellington 6140.

Directory of Official Information and Charging Guidelines for OIA requests

The centralised Directory of official Information, Directory of Official Information for all agencies – published or updated every two years by the Ministry of Justice in accordance with section 20 of the Act, provides a detailed picture of the structure of central Government departments and organisations, and enables requesters to find out where to direct their requests for official information.

Government approved guidelines for charging for official information is available here.