“Meeting obligations under the Official Information Act is a responsibility of all Ministry staff and must be reflected throughout their work. This includes creating and maintaining appropriate records as work is developed and before it is submitted.”
The response did not say whether Law’s comments were appropriate or in line with ministry expectations.
Education Minister Erica Stanford told the Herald that regarding the OIA, “my expectation is that the law is followed”.
The Government is progressing development of a “knowledge-rich curriculum”, drawing on sector expertise.
Work began last year on the Phase 5 Year 11-13 component of the programme.
Last November, Law was seconded from her high school principal role to be programme lead on the senior curriculum update. This involved engaging people in the sector as subject advisers, who would help with the design.
Consultation was undertaken on draft curriculum subjects throughout mid-2026, with public communications emphasising how hundreds of subject advisers and others in the sector had contributed to their development.
What’s in the video?
The video shows an online meeting the Herald had been told was held recently between Law and curriculum writers. The footage does not capture the entire meeting.
In it, Law talks about how staff in the minister’s office may provide feedback on material from the ministry, such as raising “red flags” or suggesting something “isn’t clear”.
This process allows two staff members in Stanford’s office to get “well across it” before providing the subjects to the minister to get signed off, she says.
She says the night, a staff member provided her “with most of the subjects in a bundle for me and we are keeping them here in the office”.
“Whilst I communicated a few things out to a few of you, most of it was absolutely great. Again, we won’t spend time going ‘it was great’, we will just give you the quick bits we want to ask about or get some information on.”
Law then conveys a message about how to respond to any such communication.
“What I just need to say to you all, to make sure I have said it and it is really clear, is: I will communicate to you saying, ‘this is a bit of informal feedback’, ‘could you just, da da da da’.
“Please don’t respond with anything that references the minister’s office. Remember all of this is OIA-able. This is them helping us.
“What we do not need is anything in response in writing that shows that this stuff has gone backwards and forwards between them and us.
“You can feed back to me in a reply with a piece of information, like ‘here yup’, ‘this is’, or ‘done’, or nothing, or if you want to talk about it, can you let me know, I am happy to talk it through and I am happy to chat.”
Law says to be “really mindful” during this “process”, which she says comes “before we start the formal one, which is through the bags and that is all formal and public and transparent”.
“You will notice I will just use passive verbs and just say this, so as far as anyone is concerned it is just some feedback from me.”
She says the writers have done “great work” and there were “small things” to follow up.
“It doesn’t guarantee an automatic tick-off, but it gets us a long way towards an automatic tick-off,” she says.
Law says Stanford’s “new chief adviser is highly political, is really aware of the coalition, is really aware, and if anything was going to be picked up, he would pick it up”.
“So the fact he is happy as he looks at them is a really good thing.”
The OIA
A MoE statement said staff had responsibility for “creating and maintaining appropriate records” and its commitment to responding to multiple OIA requests “demonstrates its dedication to transparency”.
It did not say if it believed Law’s comments about not putting information in writing were in line with this.
In response to further Herald questions, a spokesperson said: “We are not seeking to draw conclusions from individual comments contained in a transcript of part of an internal meeting provided by a third party”.
The issue of officials not putting information in writing due to OIA concerns has previously been commented on by former Chief Ombudsman Peter Boshier.
He wrote last year that while the OIA allowed not only for written information, but any information known to officials, to be requested, he had heard allegations public officials were pressured to avoid creating records for fear of them “being OIA-ed”.
“Sound information management practices require good record keeping and the effective management of that information once it is created or gathered,” he said, noting requirements under the Public Records Act.
“In light of such unambiguous legal obligations, the suggestion made by some commentators that officials and Ministers may sometimes keep things off the written record to avoid discoverability, is deeply troubling.”
These comments don’t relate specifically to the MoE or Law’s remarks.
Stanford said the law must be followed.
“In terms of staff members at MoE, that is a matter for the Secretary of Education.”
Sharing material
Considering Law’s request for staff not to put in writing anything that “shows this stuff has gone backwards and forwards” with the minister’s office, the Herald asked about what was shared and the process.
Stanford said senior curriculum documents had been sent to a MoE staff member seconded to her office. She said they were “the only person in the office who has reviewed it”.
“As part of the normal process, this staff member checks for spelling mistakes, duplication, plain language, any obvious errors and asks questions to ensure the papers are of an acceptable standard before I review them.”
The MoE spokesperson said the videoed meeting was held as officials were managing feedback and workload across 74 subject drafts due for release in Term 4.
They said ministry staff in the Beehive office work with officials “while material is prepared, which allows questions to be raised and information to be clarified before final drafts are submitted for the minister”.
“This is a normal part of preparing material for the Minister, not a separate decision-making process. The Ministry remains responsible for its advice to the Minister, and the Minister considers and signs off the final versions.”
They said none of the subjects had yet been provided to the minister or her political staff.
Jamie Ensor is the NZ Herald’s chief political reporter, based in the press gallery at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub press gallery office. He was a finalist in 2025 for Political Journalist of the Year at the Voyager Media Awards.