Tuesday, March 11, 2008



OIA frustrations

Last month, as part of a project I'm currently working on, I sent in some OIA requests to various government ministries (Ministry of Justice, TPK, DPMC and the Office of Treaty Settlements) seeking their initial response and advice to the foreshore and seabed judgement. Because I didn't want to see the request bogged down in pointless transfers to ministries who already had their own version of the request, I made sure to note this. But you can guess what happened next, right?

That's right - pointless transfers.

First, MoJ - missing the entire point that I was after their initial advice, not someone else's - transferred their request to the Attorney General, whose claim of legal privilege is so predictable that I didn't bother asking them in the first place. Then today I learned that TPK had transferred theirs (late) on to MoJ, who will no doubt stick it on the merry-go-round to the AG, who will politely tell me to go and stick it somewhere unpleasant. Sometimes, I really think I'm dealing with Vogons...