Peter Ellis Org : Seeking Justice for
Peter Ellis
The
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The Ministry of Justice |
Last updated
February 15, 2004
The Documents
March 1, 2000 Secretary for Justice, Colin Keating, Report to Minister
"Options for Further
Inquiry into the Ellis case"
~ March, 2000 Attorney General, Margaret Wilson, Memorandum for Cabinet
"Peter Ellis
Convictions: A Commission of Inquiry"
March 6, 2000 Minister of Justice, Phil Goff, Memorandum for Cabinet
"Options for Further
Inquiry into the Ellis case"
March 7, 2000 Secretary of the Cabinet, Sarah Egan, Paper for Cabinet Policy
Committee
Attaches
the documents from Secretary for Justice; Attorney General, and Minister of
Justice
The Request for
the Documents
Jun 25, 2003 Katherine
Rich MP writes to the Ministry Justice
"I request under
section 12 of the Official Information Act, a copy of all correspondence
(including email), reports, or any document that relates to Peter Ellis and the
Christchurch Civic Creche case for the period November 1999 to April 2001 that
refers to either a ministerial inquiry or a commission of inquiry".
Aug 5, 2003 Ministry
of Justice responds, withholding the following information:
"Document C28 dated 6
March 2000, a Memoranda for Cabinet, covering letter and Cabinet Policy
decision (Page 5 of the Memorandum for Cabinet) (One sentence withheld pursuant
to sections 9(2)(f)(iv) and 9(2)(g)(i))."
(Refer
March 1, 2000 : Report by Secretary for Justice to the Minister)
Oct 28, 2003 Ministry
of Justice confines reasons for withholding information:
to
section 9(2)(g)(i) of the Official Information Act
Dec 10, 2003 Chief Ombudsman writes to
Ministry of Justice with his findings:
"My provisional view
is therefore that section 9(2)(g)(i) does not apply to the information at issue
and the information should be released accordingly"
Jan 12, 2004 Val Sim, of Ministry
Justice releases information to Katherine Rich:
and also providing the
Ministry's reasons for withholding information.
The information withheld by the Ministry is made public - with reference to an
inquiry on the Ellis case:
It has to be acknowledged, however, that
such an inquiry is unlikely to be able to arrive at the truth and, whatever its
findings, may fail to satisfy current public doubts"
Jan 22, 2004 Chief Ombudsman writes to
Katherine Rich:
to
conclude his investigation
The Public
Reaction
Feb 7, 2004 The Press - MP questions
removal of sentence from Ellis inquiry report
The
removal of a single sentence in a Ministry of Justice report into the Peter
Ellis case has been questioned by an MP. The ministry has been accused of
having a "vested interest" in the Ellis case, after a ruling by the
Ombudsman overturned a departmental decision to keep the sentence from the
public eye. Documents released by Ellis campaigner and National MP Katherine
Rich show the ministry withheld the sentence from a report which she had
requested under the Official Information Act......Mrs Rich said the sentence
was "innocuous" and blacking it out was "the height of
silliness". She now had concerns over the ministry's position on the Peter
Ellis case.