Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

4: Purposes

You could also call this:

"This law helps you access information from local councils so you can be involved and see how they make decisions."

Illustration for Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987

The purposes of this Act are to increase progressively the availability to the public of official information held by local authorities. This is so you can participate more effectively in the actions and decisions of local authorities. You can also see how local authority members and officials are accountable for their actions.

This Act also aims to provide you with proper access to official information relating to you. It protects official information and the deliberations of local authorities to the extent consistent with the public interest and the preservation of personal privacy.

The Act has other purposes, including to provide for the issue of land information memoranda, as outlined in section 4 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987, which was amended by the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 2015 and the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 2023.

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This page was last updated on 18 July 2025

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM122283.

Topics:

Government and voting > Local councilsRights and equality > Privacy

3: Act to bind the Crown, or

"The government must follow this law too"

5: Principle of availability, or

"Councils must give you information unless they have a good reason not to."

4Purposes

The purposes of this Act are—
to increase progressively the availability to the public of official information held by local authorities, and to promote the open and public transaction of business at meetings of local authorities, in order—and thereby to enhance respect for the law and to promote good local government in New Zealand:
1. to enable more effective participation by the public in the actions and decisions of local authorities; and
2. to promote the accountability of local authority members and officials,—
to provide for proper access by each person to official information relating to that person:
to protect official information and the deliberations of local authorities to the extent consistent with the public interest and the preservation of personal privacy:
to provide for the issue of land information memoranda.

Compare

1982 No 156 s 4

Notes

Section 4(a): amended, on 26 March 2015, by section 5 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 2015 (2015 No 23).
Section 4(d): inserted, on 1 July 2025, by section 5 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Amendment Act 2023 (2023 No 41).