Te Aka Whai Ora is committed to being open and accountable.
The Official Information Act 1982(external link) (OIA) is an important tool for democracy. It allows you to make a request for official information held by New Zealand government agencies, including Te Aka Whai Ora.
We release official information on this website to make sure there is greater awareness and public understanding of Māori health issues and our commitment to hauora Māori.
Our policies in light of the Official Information Act
Te Aka Whai Ora and the Official Information Act [PDF, 263 KB]
Te Aka Whai Ora and Proactive Releases [PDF, 224 KB]
Official Information Act Requests Involving Ministers - Guidance [PDF, 424 KB]
People in New Zealand can request official government information and can expect it to be made available unless there is a good reason to withhold it.
This includes:
You can request official information from Te Aka Whai Ora such as:
Before making a request from Te Aka Whai Ora, the information you seek may already be available online - please check below:
Board meetings and decisions(external link)
Advice provided to the Minister and Associate Ministers of Health
Official Information Act responses
Please read Te Aka Whai Ora’s entry in the Directory of Official Information [PDF, 205 KB] to find out more about our functions and responsibilities, structure, and records. The Office of the Ombudsman(external link) provides guidance on making official information requests.
Te Aka Whai Ora can only answer requests for information that we hold. Find out what information each agency holds and their contact details in the Directory of Official Information(external link)(external link).
You can also look at the information other agencies in the health sector hold, including:
If we think that another agency or Minister may have the information you requested, we will transfer your request to them within 10 working days. We will let you know if we have done this and who we transferred it to.
If you cannot find the information you are looking for contact us to request information.
Include the following:
We may contact you if we need more information.
We will acknowledge your request and give you a decision as soon as possible, and no later than 20 working days after we receive your request.
If we need more time, for example, if you're requesting a lot of information, we may need to extend the timeframe. We'll let you know if this happens and give you an idea of a timeframe. From 25 December to 14 January is not considered 'working days'.
Contact us to change your request. The 20 working days will start from the day after we receive your request to change.
Official information calculators | Office of the Ombudsman(external link)
If we need to clarify your request within the first 7 working days, the 20 working day timeframe will begin again once the clarified request is confirmed.
Under the OIA, information should be made available unless there is a good reason to withhold it. We can only withhold information for specific reasons set out in the Act. If this happens, we will let you know why.
Requesting official information is free, but sometimes we may need to charge a fee if it will take a lot of work to supply the information. The charging guidelines for official information can be found here.
Ministry of Justice(external link)
We'll discuss this with you if we determine that we need to do this.
If you're not happy with our response, email us to see if we can resolve the problem.
Guidance on how agencies will respond is provided by the Office of the Ombudsman and Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission.
You can also make a complaint to the Office of the Ombudsman if you:
The Office of the Ombudsman(external link) can investigate and review our decision and may make a recommendation to us if it is considered appropriate.
Any request made under the OIA may be released by Te Aka Whai Ora once it's completed and sent to you. We will let you know if we are going to do this.
Your personal information will be removed from the published version.
If you make a request via FYI.org, the response will be public information as soon as Te Aka Whai Ora publishes its response.
You can ask Te Aka Whai Ora for personal information that you think we might hold about you.
Requesting personal information about yourself | Office of the Privacy Commissioner(external link)
