Official Information Act requests

This request was filed via Instagram and received some coverage from Newsroom. While social media isn't the most ideal avenue for filing an OIA, it is still a valid one. The Ombudsman once issued a ruling that a tweet is a valid medium for request.

Prime Minster Christopher Luxon sat down in a 2024 joint interview with Finance Minister Nicola Willis and the New Zealand Herald. Nicola mentioned that Chris Luxon had assigned a list of "self-help management books" to public department heads but that she had not personally read them. This request uncovered the names of those books which were Good to Great, The First 90 Days and The Five Dysfunctions of a Team.

This person wanted to know how many Kainga Ora (Housing New Zealand) tenants have been relocated or filed complaints in regards to houses being "haunted" over a five year period. They were unable to perform a free-text search as each office houses different files so there is seemingly no centralised way to query all case files. As a result, we don't definitively know that there have never been any transfers due to hauntings. Upon closer inspection, it seems that the requestor would go on to become slightly infamous.

This was a request about Apple Carplay and Android Auto allegedly cutting out in the Tamaki Drive area, as well as some other locations. Radio Spectrum Management (RSM) had a look and weren't able to replicate the issue at all. They did also note that WiFi and Bluetooth call under a General User Radio License (GURL) so there has to be repeated reports for any given incident to cross the threshold for investigating. While the only claim about this issue is a single Reddit thread, and groups have known to mass-hallucinate events, it is an interesting story regardless. Personally I don't own a car so I wouldn't have any way of trying to replicate these issues but it does bring to mind a couple of cases where I've had Bluetooth earbuds glitch out, usually around the same areas. I had always put it down to a density issue so perhaps there could be heavier equipment at place. One Redditor claimed that CCTV backhaul and NZTA/AT traffic monitoring has been identified as being at play but didn't provide any evidence of those claims.

There is a gaming community called Beehive Roleplay who roleplay as emergency services using FiveM, a multiplayer mod for Grand Theft Auto V running on dedicated servers. In order to have their simulation be as accurate as possible, in-game vehicles are branded with real-life branding such as those used by Fire and Emergency NZ (FENZ). At the time of the request, it seems that while FENZ had asked Beehive RP whether they had permission, a lot of it was still covered by legal privilege as to whether a cease and desist was filed.

As it says on the tin, the longest period that someone has gone on their learner's license is over 40 years!

The actual request itself was not something I had ever considered, and the answer is zero deaths. However, what was interesting was the mention of the International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems. I had never heard of it before but it's essentially an index of all the different categories of death which each have a code assigned to them.

This request is interesting, not so much for the content of the request itself but because the typesetting in the attached slide deck seems to break down as it progresses. See Page 71 as an example.

A spreadsheet containing deployability percentages of NZDF personnel. I'd never really thought about it before now and probably would have found it believable that almost 100% of personnel would be deployable? It doesn't really break down what particular role each member has, which is probably a factor. I also wonder what differs between domestic and international deployability.

A spreadsheet showing all of the various consultants hired by LINZ between 2017 and 2019. I'm not passing judgement on whether the list is a reasonable amount for an agency but just seeing the list laid out and all the various odd jobs that any given contractor may be hired for is quite interesting.

An engagement survey showing how anaesthetic technicians feel about their workplace and career aspirations. I found this novel solely because it's so boring. It hadn't really occurred to me that medical professions might also have to deal with these sorts of HR surveys.

A request filed by myself, shedding some light on an age old question: Does pressing the button at the pedestrian crossing actually do anything?

At first, I had assumed was just a run of the mill reality TV complaint, only to discover it had formed part of an investigation which partly lead to Calida Stuart-Menteath winning Business Journalist of the Year in 2019.

A request about the Passport eGate's used at Auckland Airport which confirms that despite appearances, any units with a false floor are that way just due to aesthetics.

This person who filed this request had unfortunately injured their hand in an accident, meaning that their request was full of typos making for some dark comedy.

A request from someone who heard about an intranet page called "Infurnal Affairs" at the Department of Internal Affairs and requested to see some pet photos.