The trick is knowing the right question to ask.

Of course now that National are the government I do not ask the questions so much any more – I want this government to be around a very long time.

You leftists are so fucken dumb. That is not communism, because its voluntary, and people do it willingly. Its charity and compassion. Communism is compulsory, and its stealing.

Such hopeless morons leftists. Sometimes I wonder, when they display such woeful ignorance as this, if there’s ever going to be any hope for them.

Manolo,

Doesn’t seem vastly different from the Mormons. Let us not forget the evils of caffeine.

Ryan, Ryan, Ryan. Talk about a lame attempt at relativism. Morman jihadis come around and mow your lawn if you ask them to. Muslim Jihadis cut your head off.

There has never to my knowledge been a case bought under the Protected Disclosures Act 1999 which doe suggest said Act is woefully inadequate.

The public confidence can only be served when they percieve there is a process to allow bad stuff to be reported and action taken against the bad bastards.

Good governance is all about tone at the top Those campaigning for good governance are relying on JK to stamp his mark by sending the shock troops aka AG to shake the trees and see what falls out.

There is a lot of rotten fruit on the trees. Witness ACC Board. This is just the tip of the iceberg. We need to see all the Socialists appointees gone and some real quality governance professionals installed

They do exist they are ready to serve CCMAU and others have to start fishing in a different pond rather the same old same old that they have for years.

Or is it just State TV adding this lettering to big themselves up?

[DPF: All Departments stamp that on info released, so it is obvious if it was leaked or released]

Doesn’t seem vastly different from the Mormons. Let us not forget the evils of caffeine.

can’t stay out of the limelight long, can you?

Anyway, I went to church yesterday and the minister preached a long sermon, all about sharing, andf helping, and kindness. Seemed very communist to me.

This is my advice, as someone who has spent a fair bit of time answering OIAs (I’ve taken time off from reviewing one to type this).

1) Get address of relevant department
2) Decide what information you are seeking
3) Write a letter including the phrase ‘Under the Official Information Act, I request …

That’s it.

Pkiwi is correct in that any request for information is supposed to be answered bearing in mind the requirements of the OIA. However, in my department (unsure about others), OIAs have a separate filing and reporting stream to general correspondence, meaning that answers are more likely to be checked for completeness before mailing.

The important thing is deciding what to ask for. The more specific a request, the more likely it is to be met. Letters requesting (hypothetically) ‘any stuff about violence in the South Island’ will get a ‘please clarify’ response.

Contra Red, gd and others, the only problems I’ve ever experienced in answering requests in full is when stuff has been lost. No department wants to admit to that, but it happens. The most striking thing about most of the material sent out is how boring and routine it is. New reporters and opposition MPs (two of the bigger customer groups) invariably expect some tale of scandal and incompetence, and very rarely find it.

Just check it yourself before you accuse anyone: http://www.inter-islam.org/Prohibitions/prohibitdex.htm
Almost impossible to believe in the 21st century, but that’s Islam for you and appeasers of your ilk.

He’s not little, he doesn’t rant, and if you find his informative posts “scary”, then that’s a good thing. You need to be scared commie.

Problem is We dont know what we dont know but we do know that we peobably only get to see hear the tip of the iceberg.

I never cease to be amazed at the naiveity and innocence of the populus.

(He’s a good little blogosphere soldier that whaleoil, but some of his rants are just scary!)

Kudos to Whale Oil for submitting the OIA requests to expose this. More bloggers should do the same (including me).

Yeah … OIA.

Whaleoil:

This is based on a whole series of email correspondence related to the retrieval of the car which has fallen into my possession fifth hand via Beehive sources.

Funny ain’t it, that an “experienced” reporter like Hayden Dewes (Dom Post Chief Reporter) apparently does not know any better than to take a bureaucrat at his word.

Maybe this is why all we ever get from NZ’s mainstream media is virtual government press releases with little searching into whether such releases are accurate or not.

Today’s journalists just don’t seem to understand their job at all.

At least we seem to be getting a little bit better standard but the report to date from gd to JK is must try harder.

You do have a lot of work to do but you must get tough with these morons and bozos both in the public and the private sector.

they have been having a lend of us for far too long and need sorting out.

Change the employment laws if they are an impediemnt

The taxpayers will appauld you when they see the head on spikes of the CEOs in both sectors who have been guilty of the most appalling behaviour from waste in the publci sector to out and out fraud and theft as a servant in thr private sector

Come on JK you know you can do it Step up to the plate