It appears from the sequence of letters below
that the Minister of Justice, Amy Adams, acts unfairly and in secrecy.
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15 March 2015
Minister of Justice
Parliament House
Wellington
Dear Amy Adams,
Once you became Minister of Justice, you went on television and invited
people to meet with you and discuss issues relating to rape and domestic
violence. I offered to meet you to discuss these topics, but my offer
was rejected.
Under the Official Information Act, could you please inform me:
1. How many people or groups contacted your office and asked to meet
with you about one or both of these topics;
2. How many of these clearly represented a female or Feminist point
of view;
3. How many clearly represented a male or Masculist point of view;
4. How many did not clearly represent either a male/Masculist or a female/Feminist
point of view;
5. How many of these who clearly represented a female or Feminist point
of view were allowed to meet with you;
6. How many these who clearly represented a male or Masculist point
of view were allowed to meet with you;
7. How many these who did not clearly represent either a male/Masculist
or a female/Feminist point of view were allowed to meet with you.
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Peter D. Zohrab
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Below is the reply which I received:
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I then followed-up with the letter below:
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16 April 2015
Minister of Justice
Parliament House
Wellington
Dear Amy Adams,
Thank you for your letter dated 1 April 2015.
In view of your reply, could you please inform me, under the Official
Information Act:
1. What are the names of the people or groups who/which contacted
your office and asked to meet with you about issues relating to one
or both of rape and domestic violence?
2. What are the names of the above people or groups who/which were allowed
to meet with you;
Thank you in advance.
Yours sincerely,
Peter D. Zohrab |
Below is the reply which I then received:
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In view of this refusal, I wrote to the Ombudsman, as follows:
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21 May 2015
The Ombudsmen
P.O. Box 10152
Wellington
Dear Sir/Madam,
Could you please investigate and review the refusal of the Minister
of Justice to comply with my two Official Information Act requests,
in a letter dated 16 April 2015, as follows:
1. What are the names of the people or groups who/which contacted
your office and asked to meet with you about issues relating to one
or both of rape and domestic violence?
2. What are the names of the above people or groups who/which were allowed
to meet with you.
The refusal was based on s. 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act
1982, but it would clearly have been open to her to give me the names
of groups, which are not natural persons. Even natural persons do not
have a privacy right to conceal a visit to a Minister of the Crown,
which is not a very sensitive bit of information about them.
The background to this matter is that the Minister advertised for
people to meet with her to discuss these issues, I applied to do so,
she refused to see me, and then I asked her about the nature (feminist,
masculist, etc.) of those who had applied, and about the nature of those
who had been allowed to see her, but she refused to disclose that information.
The Minister is exploiting the fact that Judicial Review is too expensive
for the individual to contemplate, and is not available under Legal
Aid, in practice. Her attitude is clearly undemocratic and involves
policy predetermination.
Yours sincerely,
Peter D. Zohrab
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The Ombudsman's office appears still to be severely under-staffed,
but I eventually received the substantive reply below:
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Eventually, I received the following communications
from the Ombudsmen and the Minister of Justice:
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Subject:
Ombudsman complaint 405169
From:
Alex Pohl <Alex.Pohl@ombudsman.parliament.nz>
Date:
Tue, 23 Feb 2016 16:17:26 +1300
To:
"peter@zohrab.name" <peter@zohrab.name>
Good afternoon Mr Zohrab
I refer to your complaint to the Ombudsman, dated 21 May 2015. Your
complaint concerned a decision by the Minister of Justice on your request
for:
1.the names of people/groups who sought a meeting with the Minister
of Justice to discuss rape and domestic violence; and
2.the names of the people/groups with whom she met, and those she
did not.
The Minister originally refused your request under section 9(2)(a)
of the Official Information Act 1982. With the departure of Dame Beverley
Wakem, Professor Ron Paterson has assumed responsibility for this investigation.
Following the notification of an investigation and enquiries of the
Minister’s Office, I understand that the Minister has provided
a further response to your request, releasing the names of those groups
and individuals who had requested, and been granted, meetings with the
Minister.
That being the case, could you please confirm whether this resolves
your complaint?
Kind regards
Alex Pohl
Investigator
Office of the Ombudsman | Tari o te Kaitiaki Mana Tangata
Phone 04 473 9533 | Fax 04 471 2254
www.ombudsman.parliament.nz
PO Box 10152, Level 7, SolNet House, 70 The Terrace, Wellington
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