{"id":607827,"date":"2026-09-22T04:28:10","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T04:28:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607827\/"},"modified":"2026-09-22T04:28:10","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T04:28:10","slug":"ministry-of-education-says-officials-leaked-oia-comments-inconsistent-with-expectations-launches-internal-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/607827\/","title":{"rendered":"Ministry of Education says official\u2019s leaked OIA comments \u2018inconsistent\u2019 with expectations, launches internal review"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cThe matter is being addressed directly with the employee in question,\u201d a ministry spokesperson told the Herald. \u201cIt would not be appropriate to comment on an individual employee while those processes are underway.\u201d<\/p>\n

The ministry is also launching an internal review \u201cto provide assurance that this is an isolated incidence\u201d, the spokesperson said. It has been in contact with the Ombudsman and the Public Service Commission. <\/p>\n

When the Herald approached the ministry on Monday about the comments, it would not say if it thought they were appropriate or in line with expectations, but emphasised adherence to OIA obligations was a responsibility of staff \u201cand must be reflected throughout their work\u201d.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, the spokesperson said, \u201csuggestions that information should not be recorded in writing to avoid scrutiny are completely unacceptable and undermine trust in the public service\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Ombudsman and the Public Service Commission (PSC) have been contacted for comment. The Herald has also attempted to contact Law through the ministry and the school where she\u2019s a principal.<\/p>\n

The video is of an online meeting held recently in which Law said staff <\/a>in the minister\u2019s office may provide feedback on material from the ministry relating to the new subjects. She told those in the meeting that she would communicate with them if there were any questions. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhat I just need to say to you all, to make sure I have said it and it is really clear, is: I will communicate to you saying, \u2018this is a bit of informal feedback\u2019, \u2018could you just, da da da da\u2019,\u201d Law said.<\/p>\n

\u201cPlease don\u2019t respond with anything that references the minister\u2019s office. Remember all of this is OIA-able. This is them helping us. What we do not need is anything in response in writing that shows that this stuff has gone backwards and forwards between them and us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Law says to be \u201creally mindful\u201d during this \u201cprocess\u201d, which she says comes \u201cbefore we start the formal one, which is through the bags and that is all formal and public and transparent\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou will notice I will just use passive verbs and just say this, so as far as anyone is concerned it is just some feedback from me.\u201d <\/p>\n

\"DrDr Catherine Law was speaking at a meeting when she made the comments. <\/p>\n

The Ministry of Education has said the meeting took place as \u201cofficials were managing feedback and workload\u201d across 74 subject drafts due for release in Term 4. <\/p>\n

The minister previously told the Herald that curriculum documents had been sent to a ministry official based in her office, but she had not received them herself.<\/p>\n

The Labour Party on Tuesday morning called for a Public Service Commission investigation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Education spokeswoman Ginny Andersen said the video raised \u201cserious questions about instructions given to Ministry of Education staff to keep political matters out of emails and avoid OIA scrutiny, following conversations with Erica Stanford\u2019s office\u201d.<\/p>\n

She said \u201cany breach of public service obligations must be properly investigated and the public deserves answers\u201d. <\/p>\n

Stanford told the Herald she had spoken with the Secretary of Education and was \u201cconfident that she\u2019s got this in hand\u201d. The pair met yesterday, Stanford said.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe\u2019s already talked to the Public Service Commission. She\u2019s already talked to the Ombudsman and she\u2019s already looking into the matter and taking it very seriously,\u201d Stanford said.<\/p>\n

Labour has questioned whether the minister\u2019s office instructed officials to \u201ckeep political matters off emails\u201d.<\/p>\n

Asked if anyone in her office had instructed Law to make it clear to staff not to put information in writing, Stanford responded: \u201cMy officials and myself have never ever said to anybody to subvert the course of the OIA. We take our obligations extremely seriously and this is a matter for the Secretary of Education and her staff.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"EducationEducation Minister Erica Stanford says the matter is being dealt to by the ministry. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

She reiterated a previous comment to the Herald that neither she nor her political staff had yet received the secondary school curriculum documents. An official seconded from the ministry to her office had, which Stanford said was the normal process.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe seconded staff make sure that they\u2019re in the right order for me, that they are appropriate for me to see and then I see them, but I haven\u2019t seen them yet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Stanford repeated that this was an \u201cinternal ministry matter\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe Secretary of Education has already contacted the Public Service Commission, the Ombudsman, and is taking appropriate actions as she should.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if she found the comments disturbing, Stanford said: \u201cWell, of course, if anyone is not complying with the OIA, then that is a serious matter and the Secretary of Education is taking it very seriously\u201d.<\/p>\n

\"Labour'sLabour’s Ginny Andersen is wanting an investigation into the matter. Photo \/ Mark Mitchell<\/p>\n

Andersen has also called on Prime Minister Christopher Luxon to explain what had occurred.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is not how a transparent government should operate, and the Prime Minister cannot simply brush it aside,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Luxon said it was an issue for the Ministry of Education.<\/p>\n

He denied creating a culture of avoiding accountability and transparency. He hadn\u2019t asked for an explanation from the ministry about what had happened in this case.<\/p>\n

The Taxpayers\u2019 Union\u2019s Rhys Hurley backed Labour\u2019s call for an investigation into the matter, but wanted it to be established if \u201cthis is happening across the entire public service\u201d. <\/p>\n

\u201cLabour is bang on to demand an investigation into the Ministry of Education. If officials are being told to keep things out of writing because they could be released under the OIA, taxpayers deserve to know how far that practice goes.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Government is progressing development of a \u201cknowledge-rich curriculum\u201d<\/a>, drawing on sector expertise. <\/p>\n

Work began last year on the Phase 5 Year 11-13 component of the programme.<\/p>\n

Last November, Law was seconded from her role as Avonside Girls\u2019 High School principal to be programme lead on the senior curriculum update. This involved engaging people in the sector as subject advisers, who would help with the design. <\/p>\n

Consultation was undertaken on draft curriculum subjects throughout mid-2026, with public communications emphasising how hundreds of subject advisers and others in the sector had contributed to their development. <\/p>\n

Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald\u2019s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cThe matter is being addressed directly with the employee in question,\u201d a ministry spokesperson told the Herald. \u201cIt…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":607828,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[4619,12070,5782,84,28161,71,42,212830,15415,10118,1739,18206,28874,43,6134,1118,5908,10711,59787,762,312,5843,1516,13917,40,38,41,39,8238,102,64460],"class_list":["post-607827","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-act","tag-certain","tag-comments","tag-education","tag-expectations","tag-from","tag-headlines","tag-inconsistent","tag-information","tag-internal","tag-launches","tag-leaked","tag-ministry","tag-news","tag-obligations","tag-of","tag-official","tag-officials","tag-oia","tag-review","tag-says","tag-senior","tag-staff","tag-telling","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories","tag-under","tag-with","tag-writing"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607827","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=607827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/607827\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/607828"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=607827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=607827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=607827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}