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33: Classified information relating to security or criminal conduct may be relied on in decision making
or “Secret information about security or crime can be used for immigration decisions”
You could also call this:

“Minister can receive confidential immigration information”

You should know about a rule in New Zealand’s immigration law. This rule is about how the Minister can get important secret information.

If there’s secret information that might matter for a decision about immigration, a few things can happen:

The Minister can ask the boss of the government agency that has the secret information to tell them about it. This can be done by talking or in writing.

The Minister can get help from people who are allowed to know secret information. The Minister picks who these helpers are.

The boss of the agency with the secret information decides what to tell the Minister.

There’s also a special rule about keeping this information private. No one can be made to talk about what was in the secret information in a court or tribunal. This includes anything they learned from it or any notes about it. There are only two times when someone might have to talk about it, and you can find those rules in sections 241(1) and 259(1) of the law.

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Next up: 35: Protection of classified information

or “Keeping special secret information private in immigration decisions”
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Part 2 Core provisions and matters in relation to decision making
Reliance on classified information in decision making

34Minister may receive briefing

  1. Where classified information may be relevant to a decision under this Act,—

  2. the Minister may request an oral or a written briefing from the chief executive of the relevant agency; and
    1. the Minister may seek the assistance of such security-cleared assistants as he or she thinks fit; and
      1. the content of the briefing is to be determined by the chief executive of the relevant agency.

        1. No person may be called to give evidence in any court or tribunal in relation to the content of the briefing or anything coming to his or her knowledge as a result of the briefing (including any record of an oral briefing), except as provided in sections 241(1) and 259(1).