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Privacy Act 2020

Miscellaneous provisions - General

209: Exclusion of public interest immunity

You could also call this:

“Privacy Act investigations and reviews override public interest confidentiality”

You should know that the law normally allows some documents to be kept secret or questions to be left unanswered if sharing them might hurt the public interest. However, this rule doesn’t apply in two specific situations:

  1. When the Privacy Commissioner or Tribunal is investigating or holding a hearing under the Privacy Act.

  2. When someone asks for a judicial review of a decision made under the Privacy Act.

Even though this rule doesn’t apply in these situations, it doesn’t mean you can get information you’re not supposed to have. Also, this rule doesn’t change other parts of the Privacy Act that talk about when information can be withheld.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=LMS23691.

Topics:
Rights and equality > Privacy
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Part 9 Miscellaneous provisions
General

209Exclusion of public interest immunity

  1. The rule of law that authorises or requires the withholding of any document, or the refusal to answer any question, on the ground that the disclosure of the document or the answering of the question would be injurious to the public interest does not apply in respect of—

  2. any investigation by or proceedings before the Commissioner or the Tribunal under this Act; or
    1. any application under the Judicial Review Procedure Act 2016 for the review of any decision under this Act.

      1. Subsection (1) does not entitle any person to any information that the person would not be entitled to otherwise than under this section.

      2. Subsection (1) does not limit sections 44(2)(d) and 47.

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