OIA Review: Bev’s off, thank god! #politicallyblinkered #shakethattreesomemore

Updated post
Sat, 5 Dec 2015 at 1:17 p.m.

LIES and SPIN, Bev

### NZ Herald Online 1:40 PM Wednesday Dec 2, 2015
Official Information Act review finds ‘no deliberate misuse’
By Isaac Davison – NZH political reporter
A high-level review of the Official Information Act will not uncover any widespread political interference in the release of information, its author says. The Ombudsman’s Office will release the findings from its comprehensive, year-long review next week. Chief Ombudsman Dame Beverley Wakem said today that the investigation had not discovered malicious or deliberate misuse of the Act by ministers’ offices or by Government departments.

“We’ve really shaken the tree over this and haven’t been surprised by what’s fallen out,” she told a Parliamentary committee this morning.

She admitted that she had suspected political interference, but had found no hard evidence of it. Dame Beverley said people who had complained to her office could be perceiving political spin or “bad behaviour” when it did not exist, and she could not make any findings “based on hearsay”.
Read more

█ The release of the report will be Dame Beverley’s last act as Chief Ombudsman after 10 years in the role. She is being replaced by former Principal Family Court Judge Peter Boshier next week.

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Gun shy ? (broken record – your 10 limp-wristed years, inter-agency OBFUSCATION, or lose your privilege, your confidence, your connections, your office budget….)

DemiLovatoVEVO Published on Oct 9, 2015
Demi Lovato – Confident (Official Video)

Sharon Murdoch, Dame Beverley December 5, 2015 [Stuff.co.nz]

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█ For more, enter terms such as *audit nz*, *auditor general*, *citifleet*, *corruption*, *courthouse*, *cst*, *dcc*, *delta*, *department of internal affairs*, *dia*, *dvml*, *fraud*, *gambling*, *kaipara*, *nzru*, *oag*, *orfu*, *pokies*, *racing*, *rugby*, *sfo*, *stadium*, *ttcf* or *whistleblowers* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Image: nbr.co.nz – Beverley Wakem

University rolls down, Harlene not the only problem….

Due to an observable fall in student numbers, we have claimed if not predictably on other threads that there is PANIC !!!! at the University of Otago.

We’ve set to encouraging “our people” to attend other universities; while University of Otago continues to generate and support drunken disorder and lawlessness in our public domain —by allowing wayward noisy destructive gatherings (euphemistically known as parties!) in the tertiary campus area, particularly at the likes of Hyde and Castle Streets. These combine the usual assortment of assaults, vandalism, fires, hospitalisations and arrests, with undue waste of personnel, money and resources by emergency services, city council and university —impacting taxpayers and ratepayers. This so-called support from University of Otago and OUSA for youthful hijinks (civil unrest and criminality) comes as “ambulance at bottom of cliff”.

Funny we should say “ambulance” —perhaps it’s better to use “rapid response vehicle with broken windscreen”, Harlene?

Although you prefer “paving” and “village square”, or whisper “quality”.
How about ‘Dark Disgrace’ ?

█ QUESTION: Is University of Otago using an open tendering system for construction projects? YES/NO
If not why not, contact head of http://www.otago.ac.nz/propertyservices

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### ODT Online Thu, 2 Apr 2015
Editorial: Jolting any university complacency
OPINION Whatever the spin from the University of Otago, the sudden drop in first-year domestic student numbers is a shock. The fall of 350 full-time equivalents (Efts) equates to nearly 10% over last year. It reverses the previous year’s first-year domestic increase of 119 (3.2%). […] Overall, the roll decline compared with March last year is 469 to 17,172, against a budgeted prediction of an increase of towards 200. Vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne might say projected shortfall in income is less than 1% of the total budget. But the university is a huge organisation and 1% represents about $6 million.
Read more

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BORING SALES TALK FROM HARLS

### ODT Online Wed, 1 Apr 2015
Luring the best and brightest
By Harlene Hayne – Vice-chancellor, University of Otago
OPINION It is easy to forget that neither constant growth nor sheer size define the world’s great universities. Indeed, if anything, the opposite is true. Among those that consistently make the top 10 in the prominent international rankings, the vast majority – including Yale, Stanford, Harvard, Princeton, Oxford, Cambridge, MIT, Chicago and Caltech – have a student roll either similar to or smaller than Otago’s.
Read more

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18.2.15 University of Otago: Toga Party 2015 #video
16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
18.12.14 University of Otago —um Harlene, what you sellin’ now, girl?
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16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
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19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
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9.1.14 Facadism: … University of Otago warps Castle Street
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24.7.13 University: Leith flood protection scheme and landscaping
31.5.13 University of Otago development plans
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20.2.12 University of Otago student orientation
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23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images (tweaked by whatifdunedin): sunlive.co.nz – Cat (called Harlene); natlib.govt.nz – Bottom of cliff [original by Christopher Slane 2.2.08]

University of Otago: More national and global publicity #HydeStreet

### tvnz.co.nz 7:03PM Saturday March 21, 2015
Drunk shoulder-barges ambulance at Dunedin street party
Source: ONE News
A drunk man shoulder-barged the windscreen of a St Johns ambulance during the Hyde Street student party in Dunedin, covering a woman paramedic with shattered glass fragments. Police say the man damaged three vehicles including the ambulance driven by a sole female paramedic, causing her to be covered in glass fragments. They’re asking for any witnesses to the incident on Albany Street around 4pm to come forward.

“This is yet another example of the harm alcohol causes and the poor decision making of those under the influence,” says Inspector Mel Aitken, the officer in charge.

Police arrested a dozen people for a variety of offences including assault on security staff, fighting, disorder and offensive behaviour. Police say the Hyde Street party is far from what they deem a safe event following a spate of incidents involving the excessive consumption of alcohol.

“Despite the best efforts of organising staff to create an enjoyable occasion for students, the level of alcohol related harm and the risk to public safety still remains too high,” Inspector Aitken says.

The Hyde Street party has become a major event in the social calendar for many of Dunedin’s ‘scarfie’ population. Otago University Students Association took over running the annual part three years ago after unruly scenes in 2012 embarrassed the university.
Read more + Video

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The party was “far from being what police deem a safe event”. –Inspector Mel Aitken, NZ Police

### NZ Herald Online 9:00 PM Saturday Mar 21, 2015
Dozen people arrested at Dunedin street party
By Matthew Theunissen – Herald on Sunday
A dozen people were arrested and a man smashed an ambulance window, covering a paramedic in glass, at a Dunedin street party tonight. Some 4,000 tickets were sold for the Hyde St keg party, an annual student blow-out known for its excessive alcohol consumption. In a statement released about 8.30pm, police said a dozen people had already been arrested for offences including assault on security staff, fighting, disorder and offensive behaviour. A particularly distressing incident involved an intoxicated male who damaged three vehicles including shoulder-barging the windscreen of a St Johns ambulance.
Read more

● 3 News: Dunedin’s Hyde St party still far from safe – police [+ Video]
● ODT: Drunken incidents mar Hyde St party [+ Video]

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TooSurreal NZ Published on Apr 13, 2014
Hyde | 2014
Annual Hyde St keg party in Dunedin, New Zealand!
Music: “Strange clouds” – B.O.B feat. Lil Wayne
Music: “Wild for the Night” by A$AP Rocky featuring Skrillex & Birdy Nam Nam (Google Play • iTunes)

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18.2.15 University of Otago: Toga Party 2015 #video
16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
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1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: Hyde Street Party, Dunedin – ONE News screenshots by whatifdunedin

*Surprise!* Farry’s f.u.b.a.r. Stadium not attracting first year Efts

BLUNDER CITY #DUD —AND THE STADIUM REVIEW AIN’T NO HELP

Ivy League Assaults: Dumber and Dumber due to UE failure, drunkenness, fires, civil disorder, better campus and study offerings up north and overseas?

AWAIT UNIVERSITY OF OTAGO PRONOUNCEMENTS AFTER THE MARCH MEETING OF THE HALLOWED UNIVERSITY COUNCIL

A ‘PUBLIC RELATIONS EPIC’ IS EXPECTED

### ODT Online Tue, 10 Mar 2015
University roll worry realised
By Timothy Brown
Fears of University of Otago first-year student numbers falling for the first time since 2011 appear to be realised, with “serious” vacancies at Knox College and Salmond College. About 10% of beds at the two non-university run colleges remain vacant and the Otago University Students’ Association revealed, earlier this year, the University of Otago could face a drop in first-year student numbers.
Read more

Both Knox and Salmond have undergone recent building upgrades and provide excellent pastoral care in quiet settings – who then, would choose a university-owned rough-house college if you were serious about career education.

What sort of undergrad student is the University of Otago attracting nowadays? Party animals? Generation Zero lefties? Discount ivy-leaguers (Kiwi-Asian style)? And how come accommodation at college halls is so steep? It’s an obscene weekly cost if mummy and daddy aren’t paying, so yes, way better(?) to camp out in the grunge and gunge flats of Studentville —or hey, move up the hill to sink the tone of City Rise, look at all those “historic-kick-apart” villas and mansions, incredibly suited to Face Book parties and upsetting middle class owner-occupiers next door. Cripes, at each former family or professional home there’s room to park “6 cars!”, yes, the cash-cow landlords will happily (just ask) destroy established 100-year-old plantings and gardens to lay down asphalt.

Welcome to ‘Absolutely Beautiful’, Dunedin. Welcome to the student ghettos, the broken streetscapes…. smashed bottles, lingering trash, burnt furniture, bouncing basketballs (all hours, Really Dumb like that), drying vomit and worse, weeds, untrimmed trees and hedges, a few kicked-in fences, more asphalt, flaking paint at once proud residences, stickering with satellite dishes and heat pumps, strings of poorly washed laundry draping house fronts. But who can forget the “Dunedin Sound”, of nights, drunken male yahoos, uncoordinated white trash hakas and ‘young girl’ screams, passion or torture, hard to tell. 111.

THIS is, Dunedin FOR Education.
Student loans FOR Banks and Slum Landlords.
Google Images: “castle street hyde street dunedin”

And Harlene, next! Frat Life starts in on St Leonards – just a quick ride from your Ivy League of diminished offerings, that overpriced BA, BCom or BSc.

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16.2.15 University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image
18.12.14 University of Otago —um Harlene, what you sellin’ now, girl?
12.8.14 Cameras in North Dunedin
1.8.14 University Partyville, North Dunedin: Put the cameras in ~!!
16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
22.3.14 Dunedin North care less filthy slum
19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
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17.12.11 Stadium + Cull love = University of Otago + OUSA party
23.11.11 Judge Oke Blaikie finally said it
9.11.11 DCC has PR problem

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

University of Otago can’t beat broadcast news and social media #image

[click screenshot to enlarge]

This is how New Zealand Herald, via the National news section (it’s an ODT story and photograph by Hamish McNeilly), markets the University of Otago Campus Area to parents and intending students, nationals and internationals. Read the full article at NZ Herald.

Better advertising to reduce Otago’s student rolls we couldn’t hope to find.

Glad Vice-chancellor Harlene Hayne has everything under control.
Perhaps the VC could visit and apologise to the distressed student from George Street, hard at work today serving customers at the Octagon, who told me she and her flatmates ventured out on Sunday morning to find their driveway grossly awash with vomit.

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16.7.14 Stadium: Out of the mouths of uni babes…. #DVML
30.4.14 Octagon mud
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19.3.14 Dunedin North drunks
15.2.14 University of Otago: Starter questions for Harlene
10.2.14 University of Otago major sponsor for Highlanders
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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

Chief Ombudsman | OIA review

“The effective operation of the OIA is crucial to our system of open and democratic government, and this review will scrutinise how things are currently operating and set out a framework for systemic improvement where deficiencies are identified.” –Beverley Wakem, Chief Ombudsman

### NZ Herald Online 2:11 PM Tuesday Dec 16, 2014
Government offices selected for OIA review
By Isaac Davison – NZ Herald political reporter
The Chief Ombudsman says a major review of the Official Information Act will scrutinise all 27 government ministers’ offices.
Dame Beverley Wakem today began her review of the way the public sector used the OIA, which she first announced in August.
Twelve government agencies have been selected for formal review, based on their size, number of OIA requests, complaints, and other criteria.
A further 63 agencies and all ministers’ offices have been asked to complete a detailed survey. At least one agency cited for good OIA practice would be included in the review.
The Ombudsman’s office would also seek input from past and present public servants, Opposition parties, journalists, academics and others.
Dame Beverley said the goal was to assess the quality and integrity of OIA practice in the public sector and to address any issues that were found.
Read more

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█ For more, enter terms such as *corruption*, *fraud*, *whistleblowers*, *dia*, *department of internal affairs*, *stadium*, *gambling*, *auditor general*, *oag*, *audit nz*, *orfu*, *nzru*, *sfo*, *pokies*, *ttcf*, *racing* or *rugby* in the search box at right.

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

John Key’s Godzone and the OIA

A very experienced political journalist told me: “The whole culture of the Wellington public service towards the OIA is governed by two things – the need not to embarrass your minister or your department (putting your chances of promotion or even your job at risk ) and the need to uphold the law, which public servants are more conscious of than you might think. The result is that public servants block requests for as long as they can and delete as much as they can using whatever section of the OIA act that they can.” –David Fisher, NZ Herald

Link received Thu, 23 Oct 2014 at 8:15 p.m.

### NZ Herald Online 2:56 PM Thursday Oct 23, 2014
David Fisher: OIA a bizarre arms race
NZ Herald journalist David Fisher gave the following speech to an audience of public officials in Wellington on October 15. We republish it here to help the public understand the systematic difficulties faced by those seeking information on their behalf.

Good afternoon everyone. I am David Fisher, a reporter with the NZ Herald. I have worked as a journalist for 25 years, mainly in New Zealand but across a number of other countries.
I think there’s some value before I start in placing a context around the current situation in relation to the media and the OIA. In doing so, it should be said each of the following allegations is denied.
At the moment, there is an inquiry underway into whether a blogger gained some advantage in receiving information from the SIS for political purposes. There are also allegations of preferential treatment over the OIA involving the same blogger and the former Justice Minister.
The police are also facing allegations of trying to cover up juked stats by burying an OIA. And a former Customs lawyer has said his organisation preferred to let requests languish in the Ombudsman’s office than dealing with them.
In the 25 years I have worked as a journalist, there have never been so many questions, or such a loss of faith, all at once.
Read more

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Comment by Russell Garbutt
Submitted on 2014/10/24 at 10:40 am

I see that the mighty NZ Police have now decided to prosecute Nicky Hager over the fact that as a journalist he will not reveal who gave him copies of the emails that implicated so many of the National Party in downright crude manipulation and God only knows what else. Even that very friendly Speaker of the House has been forced to find that Key is a devious, slippery sod by not revealing his relationship with that scumbag Cameron Slater (watch the interesting exchange at yesterday’s question time here. http://www.inthehouse.co.nz/video/34526)
Isn’t it extraordinary that the NZ Police – such an independent body of public servants – jump so quickly whenever Donkey Jonkey and his mates want action, yet they are pleading under-resourcing for really serious crimes? Remember the infamous John Banks (you know, the little forgetful coot from Auckland) cup of tea PR stunt with Key? Key lays a complaint about the recording and the cops jump immediately. Collins, Key and others are shown to be dirty manipulators in Hager’s book and the cops immediately follow up. And how many others could say that their well-documented complaints have been diligently followed? I know of a few for starters, but let’s start with the Crewe murders and the bent cops who planted evidence. Did the cops diligently pursue anyone else when Thomas was pardoned? Not even when Rochelle Crew asked them to do so. The two bent cops were praised for their integrity and diligence by the very top cop after they died.
I could go on, but the perception out there is that the cops are politically driven.

[ends]

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26.7.12 ‘The Public’s Right to Know’ – OIA Review

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Posted by Elizabeth Kerr

*Images: tvnz.co.nz – Dirty Politics: Cameron Slater, Nicky Hager; newstalkzb.co.nz (Getty) – John Key PM looking tired

Undie 500 – police reviewing footage

### ODT Online Sat, 19 Sep 2009
More Undie arrests likely
By Debbie Porteous

Police warn they are likely to make more arrests next week after they review footage of the Undie 500 disorder in Dunedin. A team of officers has been assigned to review police video footage, still photographs and other evidence, to identify others involved.
Read more

Post by Elizabeth Kerr