Andrea Vance

Those media requests, say we're talking about a government department, you can give them a deadline.

Often you'll say end of the day.

And by and large, they will get back to you by that deadline.

But occasionally the information that you're requesting

we'll need some kind of coalition.

It'll take longer to pull together.

For example, at the weekend, I wrote a story about lobbying in the issue of climate change weather events and slash debris.

And so there was about 29 submissions that came into the Ministry for Environment, and often they have to go to the submitters and ask if they're all right to release that information.

So

There are ones that can be answered quickly by media, and then there are other ones that follow the standard OAA process.

It takes about 20, well, usually more than 20 days, but a minimum of 20 working days.

it would be very rare for you to get an OIA where no information is redacted.

And sometimes it can be something as simple as redacting the email address or telephone number of someone mentioned in the document.

But sometimes the information in the document is out of scope of your request.

It doesn't relate to what you're asking.

Some redactions are entirely legitimate.

So for privacy, commercial sensitivity, although that one is debatable, legal privilege or national security over the maintenance of law.

Others can be more debatable.

And one of the biggest challenges for journalists is not the blackout text, but understanding what has been removed and why.

Sometimes the missing paragraph is obvious from the context.