How Aviation Security screens information it doesn’t want made public

Sunday, 18 February 2024

Andrea Vance is national affairs editor for The Post and the Sunday Star-Times.

OPINION: Have you ever stood in a long, static queue that winds through an airport, extending out from security screening checkpoints?

Did you wonder what was taking so long? Where are the staff? Why are so many lanes unmanned?

Me too. So I asked Aviation Security (AvSec) for some answers. More than five months later, like you, I’m still waiting… Waiting… Waiting.

For a long time, New Zealand was an oasis from the misery that is air travel. Passing through airports was quick and relatively stress-free. Flying was easy, pleasant even.

Post-Covid, that changed. A journey became layers of airport terminal hell that generally starts with a crushing backlog of passengers waiting to stuff their belongings into a plastic tray.

Even before the pandemic, AvSec was facing significant staff shortages. Flights were being delayed or missed. Fed up with being buttonholed by grumpy travellers in the Koru lounge, then transport minister Michael Wood hauled in officials for a ‘please explain’ last year.

I know all this because I wrote about it at the time. Documents released under the Official Information Act (OIA) revealed hundreds of pages of complaints from passengers, airlines and airports, and a report from consultants which showed timeliness performance targets were being missed long before Covid struck.

Nearly a year later, after a backlog led to a narrowly missed flight from Queenstown, I wondered why the problem still wasn’t fixed. From my seat, I fired off the same OIA request. And then I waited, and waited…

What unfolded was the worst breach of freedom-of-information laws that I have experienced in 25 years of journalism.

Not long after the request was lodged, a ‘senior advisor external relations’ was in touch to say the OIA would likely be late (agencies have 20 working days in which to make a decision). I was patient: the last request took six months, and the election was looming.

In November, she was in touch asking to meet to discuss the request. This was very unusual.

Over coffee, on November 14, the advisor explained AvSec had set up a ‘Queue Taskforce’. The information would be available in a week or so, she said. I was clear I wanted it to write a story ahead of the Christmas rush.

On November 23, a “quick update” arrived by text message. “It’s looking good for me to get info sent over to you Monday.” That deadline came and went, with another delay: “I was aiming for it but the sign off process has been delayed by the weekend’s events.”

(Those ‘events’ were chaotic scenes at Auckland Airport when AvSec staff shortages delayed international flights. A spokesperson blamed Thanksgiving.)

There is no provision in the OIA to exempt busy spin doctors dealing with a bad news story.

Then it transpired that what the senior advisor was intending to release was not the documents I asked for, but some sort of ‘media pack’ on how AvSec was dealing with delays. The OIA wouldn’t be made available until January 5, she said.

The most generous interpretation is that she was naive, and failed to understand that no experienced journalist would accept a press release (which did not exist prior to the request) in place of official government papers.

At worst, the agency was withholding correspondence that was embarrassing and damaging to its reputation at a time when it was under scrutiny for poor performance.

Either way, it is breaking the law.

There’s precious little sympathy for journalists and researchers who battle The OIA Wall, a colossal and impenetrable fortification garrisoned by an army of hundreds of government spin doctors.

We want information; information that belongs to the public, not the agencies - who would rather it be sanitised and filtered through official TikTok channels.

But look at it this way: AvSec is under-performing.

These delays impact productivity and the commercial operations of both the airlines and airports (which in most cases are part-publicly owned).

Not just that, but the public is entitled to know when a government agency is repeatedly flunking, particularly when it holds responsibility for planes not falling out of the sky.

And there is a question of confidence. The Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) - AvSec’s parent agency - has the power to fine both citizens and airlines for breaching aviation rules.

Why should we have faith in their ability to uphold the law when they pick and choose which ones to break?

While the CAA can enforce regulations, the Ombudsman information watchdog has no such authority. There are no penalties for withholding information from the public, to whom it belongs, and that’s not going to change any time soon.

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has reconfirmed his intention to review the 40-year-old legislation “however the timing is yet to be considered in relation to other priorities”.

For what it’s worth, a complaint sits with the Ombudsman. A complaint to the Public Service Commission for breach of professional standards went nowhere. Accountability for deceptive spin doctors is not a thing, apparently.

And that OIA? On February 2, AvSec set a new date for delivery: February 13.

I’m still waiting…

What do you think? Email sundayletters@stuff.co.nz.