Green Paper: Reforming the Official Information Act 1982.
New Zealand's Official Information Act 1982 (OIA) was, at the time of its enactment, a landmark piece of legislation. It replaced a presumption of official secrecy with a presumption that information should be made available unless there is good reason to withhold it. Its fundamentals - a case-by-case, harm-based approach to disclosure, overseen by the Ombudsman rather than by fixed categories of secrecy - have been repeatedly endorsed as sound, including by the Law Commission in its 2012 review and by successive Chief Ombudsmen.
However, a substantial body of evidence - drawn from the Law Commission's 2012 review, the Ministry of Justice's 2019 targeted engagement with the public and agencies, the Office of the Ombudsman's own observations, and cost-modelling work commissioned by the Ministry of Justice in 2025 and 2026 - points to serious and, in some respects, worsening problems with how the Act operates in practice, and to gaps in the legislation itself that have never been addressed.
This Green Paper draws that evidence together and poses questions and options for reform. It is a discussion document prepared by TINZ, intended to inform a forum of experts and stakeholders later in 2026, ahead of a final TINZ report with recommendations.
