OIA – meaning and legal capacity of “the Crown” in New Zealand

Subject: Official Information Act 1982 request — meaning and legal capacity of “the Crown” in New Zealand

Dear Sir/Madam,

Under the Official Information Act 1982, please provide the following information concerning the constitutional and legal meaning of the term “the Crown” in New Zealand.

Information requested

Please provide any current policy, guidance, constitutional advice, manuals, briefing papers, Cabinet material, legal guidance or other records held by DPMC which explain what is meant by “the Crown” when that expression is used by the New Zealand Government.

Please identify whether, for New Zealand governmental purposes, the following expressions have different legal meanings or capacities:

 

the Crown;

the Crown in right of New Zealand;

His Majesty the King;

His Majesty the King in right of New Zealand;

the Sovereign;

the New Zealand Government;

the Executive;

a Minister of the Crown; and

a Crown entity.

Please provide records identifying the legal or constitutional authority establishing that the Crown in New Zealand is constitutionally distinct from the Crown in the United Kingdom.

Please identify the legislation, constitutional instrument, convention or other authority relied upon by the Government for the proposition that the Governor-General represents the Sovereign in right of New Zealand, rather than the United Kingdom Government or the British Crown.

Where New Zealand legislation uses the expression “the Crown” without further qualification, please provide any guidance held by DPMC explaining:
a. how the relevant Crown capacity is identified;
b. whether it ordinarily means the Crown in right of New Zealand; and
c. whether the meaning depends upon the particular statute or legal context.

Please provide any records explaining who is legally capable of acting on behalf of the Crown in right of New Zealand, including the respective roles of:

 

the Sovereign;

the Governor-General;

Ministers;

government departments;

chief executives;

Crown entities; and

other statutory bodies.

Please provide any current organisational, constitutional or legal diagram showing the chain of authority from the Sovereign through the Governor-General, Executive Council, Ministers and government departments.

Please provide any records which explain whether the same natural person, presently King Charles III, acts in legally distinct constitutional capacities as King of New Zealand, King of the United Kingdom, King of Australia, King of Canada and the other Commonwealth realms.

Please identify any New Zealand Government record stating the date or constitutional event from which the Crown in New Zealand became legally or constitutionally separate from the Crown in the United Kingdom.

Please provide any records discussing the significance, for New Zealand, of:

the Balfour Declaration 1926;

the Statute of Westminster 1931;

the Statute of Westminster Adoption Act 1947;

the New Zealand Constitution Amendment Act 1947; and

the Constitution Act 1986,

in establishing or describing the separate constitutional capacity of the New Zealand Crown.

Form of response

Electronic copies are preferred.

For each part of this request, if no document or record is held, please state that expressly.

If information is withheld, please identify the particular withholding provision relied upon and the reasons for its application.

If another agency holds any requested information, please transfer that part of the request under section 14 of the Official Information Act rather than declining it.

If the scope is considered too broad, please contact me before making any decision under section 18(f), so that the request can be refined.

Thank you.

Tracy LYNCH 

NOT A LAWYER 

We Review the Crown
Follow the authority. Follow the records. Follow the money.