My research
I wanted to understand how the Official Information Act was working in practice. Who was making requests? Were the responses timely? How often was information refused, and why? Were the refusals lawful?
So I read up on the literature, interviewed requesters and officials, and wrote to all the national-level agencies subject to the OIA and obtained copies of their most recent requests and responses. Then I read about 1,000 OIA requests and responses, crunched some data, and wrote up my findings.
The results are set out in “The Official Information Act 1982: A window on government or curtains drawn?” published by the Centre for Public Law at Victoria University of Wellington.
My results are also summarised in the New Zealand Law Journal: “The Official Information Act: Does it work?” 2006 NZLJ 276 and Open Government Journal: “The Official Information Act: A window on government or curtains drawn?” 2(1) OGJ (2006)