Former Labour MP Kiri Allan opens up to NZ Herald Political Editor Claire Trevett about her mental health, drink driving charges and her new politics-free life. Video / Alan Gibson / Ella Wilks
Considerations included whether releasing the information could affect her dignity, wellbeing, reputation, or exposeher to unwanted contact or attention.
The Heraldon Sunday last week published new information from the police file relating to Allan’s July 2023 offending, including revelations she originally refused to tell police who was driving the car she had just crashed.
Allan was convicted earlier this year after pleading guilty to careless driving and refusing to accompany police. The charges followed an incident in which she crashed her ministerial car into a parked ute on Evans Bay Parade in Wellington last year.
The police file showed Allan initially gave a breath screening result showing she was over the criminal level for alcohol, but when she gave her evidential breath test nearly three hours after the crash, her level was 335mcg per litre of breath. The criminal level is 400mcg, and any reading between 250 and 400mcg attracts an infringement.
An image of the police breath test device used on Kiri Allan after her car crash shows she failed the alcohol breath test.
The Herald report noted large swathes of the police file were redacted, mainly under section 9(2)(a) of the Official Information Act, which allows information to be withheld to protect the privacy of natural persons.
Most of the sections of the police statements relating to Allan refusing to accompany police to undergo an evidential breath test were included in these redactions.
Police has now responded to a request for comment on these redactions, citing the Ombudsman’s guidelines on privacy.
“For withholding to be ‘necessary’, there must be a reason to believe release would affect the privacy of the individual(s). There is no requirement for the effect to be significant, unreasonable or unwarranted, but it should be more than negligible,” the guidelines state.
“The release of official information may affect the privacy of the individual(s) where it would reveal their personal information; or in some way intrude on their privacy - for example, by affecting their dignity or their mental or emotional wellbeing, by damaging their reputation, or by exposing them to unwanted contact or attention.”
Redactions to police statements on Kiri Allan's file conceal what her words and actions were after being placed under arrest.
Based on the guidelines, police staff compiling the file for release considered there was a privacy interest in the majority of the material contained in the released documents, “both the material withheld and that which has been released”.
A senior advisor for police ministerial services said police took into account two further considerations: the strength of the privacy interest, and whether there was a public interest that outweighed the privacy interest.
There were a number of factors that should be considered when assessing the strength of a privacy interest, including:
The nature and content of the information - the privacy interest will be increased where the information is of a private and sensitive nature.
Reasonable expectations about use or disclosure – a reasonable person would be likely to expect that information collected for the purpose of investigation and prosecution would not be used beyond that purpose.
The views of the individual – the Ombudsman’s guide notes that “consulting the subject of the information is giving recognition to the privacy values that section 9(2)(a) seeks to protect – the opportunity for the person to have some influence over what will happen to the information about them”.
“When it comes to the public interest test, police considered that, given Ms Allan was a Minister of the Crown at the time, there is a public interest in releasing information that would enable the recipient to assess whether police staff treated Ms Allan equitably and in accordance with expected standards of accountability given her position,” the advisor said.
“On the other hand, where the information in question was particularly personal or related to circumstances where Ms Allan would have more reason to expect privacy, the relevant privacy interests would be greater.”
Photos from the police file into former Justice Minister Kiri Allan's car crash on 23 July 2023 show damage to her ministerial vehicle and a parked car on Evans Bay Parade, Wellington.
The decision on whether to withhold information in any particular case required balancing these factors, “which was not a straightforward matter as these factors cannot be quantified”, the advisor said.
“Police is satisfied that it ultimately found a reasonable balance.”
He also noted an earlier redaction of the time a text message was sent between two officers was made in error. Police had originally considered withholding information about the time Allan completed her evidential breath test, but ultimately decided not to. The redaction of this information has now been removed.
The Herald has sent the file to the Ombudsman to contest the redactions.
Key facts released in police file:
Allan was found by police, walking away from the scene of the crash in the rain.
A traffic crash report on the file includes a section labelled “driver’s comments”. It reads. “The only time I was driving was when I tried to move the car off the road. I will not say who the driver was.”
Allan initially gave a breath reading over 400mcg of alcohol per litre of breath, but by the time she gave an evidential test, the level was 335mcg.
Police had shut down access to the scene within 10 minutes of confirming Allan was involved, stating it was a “high-profile” event.
Allan did not complete her evidential breath test until an hour and a half after she arrived at the station - and nearly three hours after the crash.
Melissa Nightingale is a Wellington-based reporter who covers crime, justice and news in the capital. She joined the Herald in 2016 and has worked as a journalist for 10 years.
