Honest Matt Dutton's LGOIA Emporium

The Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act 1987 (click on "L" then on the Act in the side menu) provides that:

10. Requests— (1)Any person may request any local authority to make available to that person any specified official information.

and that:

11. Assistance— It is the duty of every local authority to give reasonable assistance to a person who— (a)Wishes to make a request in accordance with section 10 of this Act

And let's not forget that all-important Section 17:

17. Refusal of requests— A request made in accordance with section 10 of this Act may be refused only for one or more of the following reasons, namely:

(a) That, by virtue of section 6 or section 7 of this Act, there is good reason for withholding the information;
(b) That, by virtue of section 8 of this Act, the local authority does not confirm or deny the existence or non-existence of the information requested,
(c) That the making available of the information requested would—

(i) Be contrary to the provisions of a specified enactment; or
(ii) Constitute contempt of Court or of the House of Representatives;

(d) That the information requested is or will soon be publicly available.
(e) That the document alleged to contain the information requested does not exist or cannot be found.
(f) That the information requested cannot be made available without substantial collation or research.
(g) That the information requested is not held by the local authority and the person dealing with the request has no grounds for believing that the information is either—

(i) Held by another local authority or a Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation; or
(ii) Connected more closely with the functions of another local authority, or a Department or Minister of the Crown or organisation.

(h) That the request is frivolous or vexatious or that the information requested is trivial.

In comments on a post a few days back, Matt Dutton made the somewhat rash offer to become the medium for all Laws Watchers to make requests of Council under the Act, thus preserving the anonymity of the questioner.

"Are you serious?!", we asked. "Absolutely," he replied. We politely left unasked the next question - the one about sanity - and gladly accepted his offer.

So, you can now email us asking for information under the Local Government Official Information and Meetings Act; we'll pass these on to Matt; he will put in the request to Council; they will answer; he will pass the answer to us, and we'll post it here. Clear? Good.

Bear in mind that the questions must be about the activities of Council or of the Mayor or any councillor in their elected capacity. We reserve the right to edit requests for clarity and to reject those we are certain would not be eligible for answer. If we're in doubt, we'll put it in and see what happens.

We've established a new email address just for LGOIA queries: LetsAskMichael@bigfoot.com

So if you've ever wondered just how many cartons of 3-ply bog roll they spend your rates on each month, and whether any of it finds its way to the toilets in Majestic Square or if it's all used at Guyton Street, here's your chance...

Update: Someone with Official Information Act experience at both national and local level offers this advice:

Information requested must specifically be available in document format, ie not just in someone's head, and the document must be clearly identified. So, fishing expeditions, while they might seem fun at the time, don't really get anywhere. And it takes up to 20 working days to find out that you could have done a better job of framing the request to point to a specific document, report, invoice etc., so you then have to start all over again...

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