Official Information Act 1982

Purposes and criteria

4: Purposes

You could also call this:

"This law helps you get information to have a say and hold others accountable."

The purposes of this Act are to help you get more official information. This is so you can participate more in making and administering laws and policies. You can also hold Ministers and officials accountable for their actions.

This Act also aims to let you access information about yourself. It protects official information that is in the public interest or is personal. This helps keep your personal information private and safe.

This text is automatically generated. It might be out of date or be missing some parts. Find out more about how we do this.

This page was last updated on

View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM65364.


Previous

3: Act to bind the Crown, or

"The government must follow this law too"


Next

5: Principle of availability, or

"Information should be available to you unless there's a good reason to keep it secret"

Part 1Purposes and criteria

4Purposes

  1. The purposes of this Act are, consistently with the principle of the Executive Government's responsibility to Parliament,—

  2. to increase progressively the availability of official information to the people of New Zealand in order—and thereby to enhance respect for the law and to promote the good government of New Zealand:
    1. to enable their more effective participation in the making and administration of laws and policies; and
      1. to promote the accountability of Ministers of the Crown and officials,—
      2. to provide for proper access by each person to official information relating to that person:
        1. to protect official information to the extent consistent with the public interest and the preservation of personal privacy.