We made a request of the Department of Internal Affairs for the “names and addresses of the pubs and clubs in New Zealand for which a class 4 venue licence has been issued (ie the pubs and clubs that host gaming machines).” They do have an online listing facility but it would be a lengthy exercise to extract the full data from here.
The DIA replied within 2 days pointing me to a PDF on the website that contained that information.
http://www.dia.govt.nz/Pubforms.nsf/URL/ListofVenue_31%20March%202009.pdf/$file/ListofVenue_31%20March%202009.pdf
The DIA website has massive amounts of content and I’m still not sure if or where that file is linked to on the site. As anyone who has tried will know extracting tabular information from a PDF is an exercise in frustration so I asked if the data was available in a simple text, html or xml format.
The DIA promptly sent through an excel spreadsheet of the data which I have published online here. Gambling List of NZ Venues March 2009
Apparently that document is not available on the DIA website but I was told that it could be requested at any time.
So… 4 stars for the DIA.
They were extremely responsive and very open with their data, I can only wish that they shared friendly file formats and linked adequately from their website.
Hi, just stumbled accross this blog – excellent work and I will be visiting regularly. Thanks.
Chris.
Oh yeah and I have a question 0.o
Does the Official Information Act apply to local bodies as well, eg councils and such? Is Court data governed by the OIA? Thanks.
With regard to this article in particular, I’m impressed to see the DIA being so forthcoming. A+
http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/other/pamphlets/2001/info_act.html
provides a good background on the OIA and LGOIMA – the local body equivalent of OIA.
There is also a Directory of Official Information which lists the bodies which the acts apply to
http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/reports/2007/directory-of-official-information/index.html
The Ministry of Justice is one of them but on their page in the directory it states:
The records of courts and tribunals are not subject to the Official Information Act 1982. Access to these is dealt with by separate legislation.