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Government Information Quarterly Contents

GOVERNMENT INFORMATION QUARTERLY

VOLUME 13, NUMBER 3 (1996)

CONTENTS

Discussion Forum:

Government Information Policy in New Zealand:
Businesslike But Evolving
Peter Hernon .................................................... 215

Symposium on New Zealand
Government Information Policies

The Development of Government Information Management Policies
in New Zealand through a Period of Reform
Helen Meehan ...................................................... 231

The New Zealand Official Information Act
Susan Elizabeth Richards and Leo Michael Donnelly .......... 243

The Office and Functions of New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner
Rodney Haines ..................................................... 255

Organizing Official Statistics for the 21st Century
Len Cook and Sandra McDonald .................................................... 275

The Restructuring of the National Archives of New Zealand:
An Ideological Experiment
Rachel Lilburn................................... 285

"You Can't Eat Information:" Government Information and
the Information Policy Role of the National Library of New Zealand
Mary Atwool ........................................ 311

About the Authors.................................... 323

REVIEWS
John A. Shuler, Editor

Sources from Statistics New Zealand
New Zealand Official Yearbook
New Zealand Now: People and Places
New Zealand Framework for Cultural Statistics 1995
Measuring Up: New Zealanders and the Environment
Te Kanohi Hou o Aotearoa-Maori
PC/INFOS Schools: Schools' Data Package
 Peter Hernon ....................................... 325

Evaluation of Cabinet-Level World Wide Web HomePages
Department of Agriculture, Department of Commerce, Department of
Defense, Department of Education, Department of Energy, Department of
Health and Human Services, Department of Housing and Urban
Development, Department of the Interior, Department of Justice,
Department of Labor, Department of State, Department of Transportation,
Department of the Treasury, and Department of Veterans Affairs
Reviewed by Megan Adams ............................................ 329

Applied Cryptography: Protocols, Alforithm, and Source Code in C,
by Bruce Schneier
Reviewed by Peter Jorgensen................................336

Nuremberg War Crimes Trials Online: A CD-ROM, by James Joseph Sanchez,
Kelly Reed, Brian Peck, Valerie Caquias, and Vicky Bishop (co-compilers)
Reviewed by Maurie Caitlin Kelly..................................... 336

Presidential Libraries and Museums: An Illustrated Guide, by Pat Hyland
Reviewed by Peter Hernon ............................................ 337

Privatizing Government Information: The Effects of Policy on Access
to Landsat Satellite Data, by Kathleen M. Eisenbeis
Reviewed by Evan McKenzie ........................................... 338

The Development of Government Information
Management Policies in New Zealand

Helen Meehan

New Zealand has earned international recognition for the extent and consistency of its state sector reforms. This article explains the background to the reforms and the current structure of the public sector. It considers how the reforms have influenced the development of government information management policies and argues that the climate is changing from one of necessary fiscal restraint to longer term considerations of the government's investment in information. The next stages of development are described.

The New Zealand Official Information Act

Susan Elizabeth Richards
Leo Michael Donnelly

The New Zealand Official Information Act 1982 is of constitutional importance, providing for public access to information held by government departments and organizations and Ministers of the Crown. Fundamental to the Act is the principle of availability: "information shall be made available unless there is good reason for withholding it." The withholding provisions identify interests which may need to be protected and may provide good reason to withhold information. Not all interests have the same weight, and some may be outweighed by other public interest considerations favoring disclosure. The Act is information based not document based and requires each request for information to be considered on its merits against its principle, purposes, and withholding provisions. It provides for partial disclosure where some information may need to be protected but there is no good reason to withhold all the information. Major public service restructuring and the "commercialization" of many public sector activities have created difficulties in the operation of the Act, but these are addressed on an ongoing basis by the Ombudsmen in order to ensure that the purposes of the Official Information Act are understood and accepted by those to whom it applies. The Act is an integral part of the public sector operational environment and will be increasingly important as New Zealand moves into the mixed member proportional system environment for electing its Parliament.

The Office and Functions of New Zealand's Privacy Commissioner

Rodney Haines

The Privacy Act 1993 applies to every person or organization in New Zealand in respect of personal information held in any capacity other than for the purposes of their personal, family, or household affairs. At the core of the Act are 12 information privacy principles that set out rules and exceptions to those rules. The Act provides for the appointment of a Privacy Commissioner. This article discusses the office and functions of the Commissioner. The Commissioner may issue codes of practice that modify the policy principles to take into account the special characteristics of specific industries or agencies or types of personal information. Furthermore, the Commissioner may investigate complaints of interferences with privacy and place some controls on the administration of public registers. Information matching programs must comply with the restrictions and rules set out in the Privacy Act. Agreements between agencies to allow information matching must be written, and a copy given to the Privacy Commissioner. The Commissioner reports on the operation of these agreements, and his reports are tabled in Parliament by the Minister of Justice. The Commissioner also has a public role on matters affecting the privacy of individuals, examines proposed legislation for any potential impact on individual privacy, and has a function of promoting, by education and publicity, an understanding and acceptance of the policy principles and their objectives.

Organizing Official Statistics for the 21st Century

Len Cook and Sandra McDonald

Official statistical offices are often included as part of the government's move to a user pays environment. In New Zealand, the change from operating a public statistical service on a cash basis fully funded by government to competing in a contestable economic market has presented a wide range of challenges. We have found that this has tested our ability to provide services for which users will pay. It has also caused us to look closely at the interaction between the commercial market and the other, more traditional, markets of Statistics New Zealand. It is the government and public markets that drive the values of national statistical offices and the consistency of those values across major statistical officers throughout the world. However, it is the move into the commercial market that is now leading to greater consumer responsiveness in both commercial and publicly funded services, more effective rationing by price and other determinants, and greater promotion of the services we can offer.

The Restructuring of the National Archives of New Zealand: An Ideological Experiment?

Rachel Lilburn

This article examines the proposal for restructuring of the National Archives of New Zealand using the functional model in which policy advice and service delivery are separated, with a public sector reform principle in widespread use. The proposal results from a report in 1994 by consultants, McDermott Miller Ltd, commissioned by The Treasury and the Department of Internal Affairs. Its contents, recommendations, and later amendment are examined in some detail. Particular attention is paid to the effectiveness and appropriateness of the model for a public archives agency, and the constitutional and legal implications.

"You Can Eat Information":
Government Information and the Information Policy Role
of the National Library of New Zealand

Mary Atwool

The National Library of New Zealand is committed to promoting access to information. Government information is a significant component in the Library's operational and policy work. The Library collects published government information and provides policy advice on New Zealanders' ability to access and use information. Over the last decade the National Library has initiated or contributed to a number of projects concerned with government information. Some, like the Depository Library Scheme, are solely focused on government information, while others discuss government information issues in the wider context of information policy at the national level. The article looks at the environment in which these projects arose, what they achieved, and the reasons why it has not been easy to gain agreement for a unified focus on government information.

About the Authors

Mary Atwool has worked in the Policy unit of the National Library of New Zealand since 1992 and now holds the position of Senior Advisor. Before joining the Policy unit, she held a number of positions in other areas of the Naional Library. The policy liaison work she has undertaken for the Library includes a period of secondment in the Office of the Associate Minister responsible for the National Library, the Hon. Roger McClay, and organization of executive support for the Trustees of the National Library.

Len Cook has been the Government Statistician in Statistics New Zealand since 1992. He joined the department in 1971 and, throughout his career, has been a regular panelist and presenter to the community and business sectors. He is often consulted by government and professional organizations on aspects of the application of statistics to practical problems. He also was a member of the Royal Commission on Social Policy.

Leo Michael Donnelly has been employed in the Office of the Ombudsmen since 1985 and was appointed Senior Investigating Officer in the Official Information Section in 1990. He is responsible for assisting both the Chief Ombudsman and Ombudsman with investigations and reviews under the Official Information Act, overviewing the work of the section, advising the Ombudsmen on official information issues, and developing the professionalism of the work of the Office in the Official Information Section.

Rodney Haines is the Wellington Manager, Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Wellington, New Zealand.

Rachel Lilburn is a Lecturer in the Department of Library and Information Studies, Victoria University, Wellington. She specializes in the teaching of archives and records management. She holds an M.A. in History (Archives) from Western Washington University, Bellingham. Before joining the Department in 1992, she was Head Archivist, Appraisal Services, at the National Archives of New Zealand, where she worked since 1993. She is currently a member of the Council of the Archives and Records Association of New Zealand.

Sandra McDonald joined Statistics New Zealand in 1984. She has worked in a number of marketing and servicing roles, including setting up the areas of publications marketing and education services. She is currently Executive Assistant to the Government Statistician.

Helen Meehan is currently Corporate Information Manager of the State Services Commission on secondment to the policy side of the Commission to carry out the review of government-held information and the development of the coordinated policy framework with an advisory group of chief executives. She convenes the Interdepartmental Committee on Information Technology whose brief is to advise on the government's role as purchaser and user of IT. As Corporate Information Manager, she led a team that recently implemented a major information/document management system which brought information into the heart of the Commission's business. Prior to the State Services Commission, she managed Infoserve, the business services of the National Library, and was involved in the Library's information policy project which produced the book Managing Data, Knowledge and Know-how.

Susan Elizabeth Richards has been employed in the Office of the Ombudsmen since 1970 and was appointed Assistant Ombudsman in 1983. She is responsible to the Chief Ombudsman for the management of the professional staff of the office, including recruitment, training, and development. She is involved with both the Chief Ombudsman and the Ombudsman in the development of policy, practices, and procedures, and is responsible to them for monitoring the quality and timeliness of the through-put of investigations. She is also responsible for the preparation and coordination of material for publication.


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