Ministry Insider Says OIA Warnings Were Not a One-Off
The Education Ministry insider who leaked video of a senior official warning staff about OIA risk says it was not a one-off.
The footage shows senior official Catherine Law telling staff not to put in writing that they were acting on feedback from the Education Minister's office. The Official Information Act, which lets the public request government documents, made the notes "OIA-able," she said. She told staff: "As far as anyone's concerned it's just feedback from me."
Law was seconded, or moved temporarily, from her role as principal of Avonside Girls' High School to lead work on the secondary school curriculum. The footage was first given to the New Zealand Herald and later obtained by RNZ, RNZ reported.
The whistleblower, whom RNZ agreed not to identify, said staff were told not to write things down about six or seven times a year. The insider said the instructions were spoken and deliberate, to keep them out of records that could be released.
The same account covered curriculum wording. The whistleblower said staff were repeatedly asked to remove the word "Aotearoa" and other Māori terms from draft curriculums. Those instructions were also spoken and never put in writing, the insider said.
Education Minister Erica Stanford rejected the claims. She described the source as "ideologically-driven" and said there had been no attempts to get around the OIA. She denied Māori words had been reduced in the curriculum.
Stanford said Article 3 of the Treaty of Waitangi was considered throughout the curriculum update. She said the refreshed curriculum contains much more Māori content. The Education Ministry did not address the whistleblower's claims directly in its response to RNZ.
The broader context here is process, not just wording. When a minister's office gives feedback on a curriculum rewrite, what officials write down decides what the public can later request and what ministers can be questioned on.
In my view, that is why the frequency claim matters for Press Gallery readers. A single reminder about OIA risk can be put down to careful records management. Six or seven verbal directions a year, with the minister's office left out of the record, raises a harder question about avoiding scrutiny. The minister has denied any direction, but questions remain about what guidance Law and other managers gave, and who approved it.
