Amazing how many agencies whisper to their staff that "stamp it with draft so it can't be released under the OIA"...

Ah, I didn't try that, John.

Except that draft documents are OIA-able, as are hand-written meeting notes, audio recordings, photographs, even making officials reconstruct discussions and thought processes. Not a lot of people realise that.?

Thanks, Andrew, I hadn't seen that. I concur completely. The OIA is a poorly understood beast by government agencies and ministers, and the public as a whole.

BIM's are publications and should be prepared by various appropriate advisors then passed to a Comms team for formatting, checking and publication. I've recently found?

Knowing some of the IT and publications staff within Treasury, I know they'd appreciate that the effort for getting the systems for this in place has been noticed, because it wasn't a small effort. I?

Here's one I made that DIA's standards team regard as a [[http://edn.org.nz/sites/all/files/Step%20Up%20Auckland%20-%20Sept%202009.pdf|good?

I love it. My primary uses for that sort?

Well prompted ;-) I've just started looking for the ones I think **should**?

I sort of agree, but getting simple semantic templates for document preparation and using styles instead of visually altering headings and the like would go a long?

Not so much any more, as raised upthread. Those skills need to be distributed along with the responsibiliites.

Most people have never been told why that is, and knowing such?

The entire culture of document management and standards like this really have to be sponsored from the top?

Yup, yup, yup. Totally agree. Back in the E-government days, we had notional agreement at the CE level that these things were important, but it never seemed to filter down. I?

Exactly. And in the agency I'm thinking of, this was the way information was gathered for OIA's:

1. Receive and interpret?

We were in the mode of?

Quite believe it. I worked in one agency where my manager said "right, we read the question carefully and only answer exactly what we have to?

That fundamental limp-wristedness makes most disability policy a disappointing experience. I'd prefer agencies and their masters were honest about not really giving a toss.

I'm definitely going to try it out. Could save quite a lot of time – although you lose the amusement factor of seeing Mendeley list your?

Yeah, I can appreciate the sentiment. Public servants are people too and they can feel annoyed and?

Shame "we" :-) probably caused?

Yeah, there?s a fascinating (and infuriating) tendency for some quarters of local and central government to come up with grounds for refusing OIA/LGOIMA requests that don?t pass the sniff?

Or, more often, journalists getting the bits selected for them by Rodney Hide et?

Oh widdums, Izogi. Obeying the law is the ?actual job? of?

Without wanting to sound facetious, you could always just ask. I'm a civil servant working with OIAs (and?

Oh, the faeces count was undetectable – fair points and pertinent anecdotes, well put. :) I don?t really care, because Opposition party research units on the trawl are an entitled to give ministerial staffers migraines as anyone else. The Chief?

The Act specifically precludes fishing expeditions. For one who complains about others playing the man, not the ball, you surely indulge in a fair?

In my view, that's the ultimate aim of the OIA. If it's?

Mark: I was being dismissive towards a mindset ? and one I?ve had far too much direct experience?

a) that make no sense – I suspect you might have missed a?

Meanwhile, I remain unconvinced that a high volume of OIA requests from media outlets or Opposition parties fail to meet the ?due particularity? test of section 12(2) of the relevant act unless they?re randomly generated word salad.

This is my experience, also. Although I have had to deal with 'any?

Not at all. I just think it skirted the point. You're welcome.

Of course not, and as Idiot/Savant has noted most Ministerial office are actually pretty good and/or lifting their game on the OIA compliance front. But damn, some can really bear to do better and others (yes, I'm looking?

Can't argue with that. My advice on the OIA has always been "Publish everything unless it shouldn't be published as it will save time in?

I'm not sure. I like the thought in principle but there's probably a significant up-start cost to get something like this going. That's not an excuse to avoid it, but it'd need a big?

Fair point. But?

Yep, well educated staff is always good. I?

Well, that's actually a measure of success in your process of government, isn't it?

What that article?

I wouldn't be so sure about that Mark. The evidence from Ireland, where the government massively increased the fees for making requests in 2003 – and?

Just glancing through that, a lot of those requests would be LGOIMA here. Lumping them all together looks expensive but the costs would actually be spread across multiple local bodies.

No, absolutely not; nor am I. The reverse. I think increasing charges is the easiest resort of regimes that like to proclaim their love for transparency and openness, while at the same time lauding the principle of 'user pays' . Increasing fees for?

I suspect it could also lead to an increase in involuntary leaks.

Bwahaha. As the lawyers say, never?

You could well be right. I do know a lot of honest public servants who are fed up with some of the actions the Government has made them take on ideological grounds, rather than evidence-based.

what's pathetic is that they think being uncopyable is right

There are always ways around anything, but should we *have* to find them?

Oy. Lockwood Smith is right he can?t just pull at least $30K a year out of his arse, but that begs a more basic question. It was looking highly likely pretty early?

The Human Rights Act might actually come into play too. Another one for Graeme to check up.

Speaking of leaks, Anonymous has set up shop in NZ. It's on now.

(put this response on wrong thread):

For sure. But everyone would rather get on with the job than waste time on that, I'm sure.

The core issue as I see it is Lockwood's misunderstanding: it is actually Parliament's accessibility that's?

This, a thousand times, this! Hell, it's a good day?

It absolutley wouldn't. A lot of OIAs are made by students and the interested public. That is, not by jounalists or people with a professional interest, but just by?

This is pretty?

Case in point: this exercise by student Matthew Taylor. A must-read if you haven't already.

No it won't, and here it's to the credit of the Ombudsmen's Office that there's been some pointed throat-clearing and eyebrow twitching over departments presenting large invoices for staff time, collation and photocopying. :) The Act could do?