Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act (LGOIMA) information requests

Noho matatapu me kā tono pāroko āpihi

The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA) allows individuals to request access to official information held by local government agencies. Any person may submit a request for information held by the Council.

Queenstown Lakes District Council is committed to transparent and accountable decision-making, and availability of information. In some cases, there may be reasons to withhold the information requested or to refuse the request. Decisions to withhold information or refuse a request must align with the reasons (or grounds) as described by sections 6, 7 and 17 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

If you have any concerns or questions about access to meetings and decision-making regarding requests for information you can contact: informationrequest@qldc.govt.nz 

If you are not satisfied with our response, you can contact the Office of the Ombudsman to discuss your concerns or raise a complaint.


Requesting information from us

Information relating to QLDC can mostly be found on this website. You can use the search function to find your topic of interest or alternatively you can contact us.

If you require information relating to a specific property – you can search eDocs.

  • Standard requests

    We will provide you with a decision about your request within 20 working days. We will acknowledge your request as soon as possible, and let you know when you can expect to receive our decision.

    If we decide to grant your request, the information will be provided to you thereafter without undue delay.

    We will let you know as soon as we can if:

    • We cannot meet the deadline and need to extend the timeframe to reach a decision on your request
    • We need more information, or need you to clarify, refine, or amend the scope of your request
    • The information is held by another government organisation and we need to transfer your request to them.

    Urgent requests

    You can ask us to treat your request as urgent. If you do, you need to provide a reason.  One of our team will let you know how quickly a response could be collated.

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  • We may withhold or decline to give information for reasons specified in section 6, section 7 or section 17 of the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987.

    If we withhold or refuse to give information, we will explain the reason why.

    For information about withholding personal information, see sections 27 to 29 of the Privacy Act 1993.

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  • Sometimes we may need to charge you for an official information request. If we decide to charge, we will tell you the cost of your request before processing it. You can then decide to proceed, withdraw or refine your request.

    We tend to charge when:

    • Answering your request requires substantial collation or research, or

    • Costs are incurred pursuant to a request response being needed urgently.

    We might ask for some or all of the cost to be paid in advance. Our charging guidelines are detailed below.

    The Government has issued Charging Guidelines that are deemed “reasonable” by the Office of the Ombudsman. The guidelines specify standard charges of:

    • $38 per half hour of staff time in excess of one hour; and

    • $0.20 per page for photocopying in excess of 20 pages.

    Ministry of Justice guidance can be accessed here.

    Office of the Ombudsman guidance can be accessed here.

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Proactive releases to LGOIMA

Each year, QLDC receives approximately 200 formal information requests. While many are specific to individual circumstances, in alignment with our commitment to transparency and accountability, and in accordance with the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (LGOIMA), guidance from the Office of the Ombudsman, and QLDC's proactive release policy, we proactively release/publish information and documents that may be of interest to the public.

All published responses have the names of requesters redacted to protect their privacy.

Read our published/proactive responses.