The Chief Ombudsman's report into the implementation
of the Official Information Act (OIA) finds that non-compliance is
often the result of uninformed or ill-informed application rather
than deliberate.
To reduce this problem, her office will produce a number
of tools to assist agencies to meet their OIA
obligations.
Context
The Ombudsman considers that the OIA is a "key tool and
safeguard in New Zealand's democracy" and agrees with the
Court of Appeal that "the permeating importance of the Act is
such that it is entitled to be ranked as a constitutional
measure".
It represented a culture change when it was passed in 1982, as
evidenced in its title and the fact that it replaced the Official
Secrets Act 1951. The basic tenet on which the OIA is founded is
that official information held by the government should be made
available to the public unless there is good reason for withholding
it, the fundamental idea being to increase public participation
