David Harvey: Searching in the Dark

How three government agencies are ignoring twenty years of e-discovery technology — and using their own backwardness against OIA requesters

Preface

In an article published in the New Zealand Herald in February 2026 I considered the operation of the Official Information Act. I observed that avoidance strategies persist: repeated requests for “clarification” that reset statutory clocks, fragmented record-keeping, and opaque decision-making. The cumulative effect is delay, frustration, and diminished public confidence. I also noted that most records are now electronic, searchable, and capable of rapid review using modern tools, including AI-assisted search and e-discovery techniques. Claims that requests are unduly burdensome because they involve hundreds of documents ring hollow when compared to contemporary information-management capabilities. Indeed, the digital paradigm should have made compliance easier, not harder.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - When Police go into business with Netflix

There is something rather dystopian about a public police force collaborating with a global streaming giant to turn an unfolding family tragedy into carefully produced entertainment. That is what the controversy over the Netflix documentary on the Tom Phillips case has become: a debate about whether New Zealand Police crossed a line when they entered into formal arrangements with commercial filmmakers while a highly sensitive investigation was still live.

Guest Post: The Problem Isn’t the OIA – It’s the bureaucracy behind it

A guest post by Rhys Hurley on Kiwiblog

Taxpayers have a right to know what is being done with their money. The Official Information Act (OIA) is one of the only tools they have to find out.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has, however, asked his officials to review the cost of this system and even floated the idea of restricting access to some of this information.

Dr Bryce Edwards: Democracy Briefing - The OIA at the crossroads

The Government is reviewing the Official Information Act behind closed doors. Most readers will immediately grasp the irony.

This review of the OIA wasn’t announced. It wasn’t publicised. It came to light because transparency advocate Andrew Ecclestone happened to be told about it, then revealed it to attendees at a parliamentary forum on democracy last month.

Pee Kay: We are, truly, a nation divided!

In late October last year I posted an article about Northland iwi, Ngatiwai, landing on one of the strictly protected Poor Knights Islands, raising a flag and concreting in a carved pou in protest at the amendment to the Marine and Coastal Area Act.

John McLean: Fonterra Fiasco Finale

My final chapter in a sad serial saga

This is my final Substack of a series I’ve published on the Financial Markets Authority doing nothing about behemoth dairy co-operative Fonterra deliberately cooking its financial books.

I’ve catalogued Fonterra’s gross financial reporting misconduct, and my protracted attempts to use the Official Information Act (OIA) to find out why the FMA let Fonterra off, scot-free.

Pee Kay: DOC’s OIA Response

In late October I posted an article about Northland iwi, Ngatiwai, landing on one of the strictly protected Poor Knights Islands, raising a flag and concreting in a carved pou in protest at the amendment to the Marine and Coastal Area Act.

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Ele Ludemann: Stiffer penalties needed for OIA delays

Outgoing Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier has released a report on the Official Information Act which shows says stiffer penalties may be needed for government agencies that persistently delay the release of official information: