Jamie Ensor

And so they asked me to destroy that information.

We can't legally put out what that information was, but what we can say is that it provided some commentary on recent deals that the United States has made with other countries, as well as a potential area of cooperation between New Zealand and the United States.

It's very uncommon.

I can't think of a recent case where I've had it happen.

after the fact and they said, look, this was a human error that they have gone back through their processes to make sure that they're up to scratch.

But it is uncommon, especially when the reason that they'd want to withhold the information is essentially down to security grounds.

That's a very sensitive area.

And so the fact that it got through the net and got through to me in the first place is concerning.

You've seen it?

I've seen that information, yes.

We did have a discussion about, I guess, the legal ramifications of publishing that information, but we ultimately decided, especially due to that security factor, that it wouldn't be the right thing to do.

Well, that's very much something that I guess the officials have to explain.

I think because these documents speak about negotiations between two governments, the New Zealand government doesn't want to be putting information out there that may concern the other governments that they're negotiating with, that may undermine some of those negotiations.

I think it was when MB got in touch with me and said that, look, we have to withhold some of this information because of these particular concerns.

I was struck by the fact that it got through the net, that it did get to me, because this sort of stuff should really be going through multiple processes.

People should be picking up on this sort of information, especially if officials are genuine when they say that it could prejudice the security, defence or international relationships of New Zealand.

Well, we'll see.

I've done some further requests to the ministry to try and get some more information.

It may come out after the final framework.

If there is a final framework is released, they may believe that they're then in a position to release it.