References and referees in New Zealand
References are the part of an application where other people speak for you. You cannot script what they say, but you can choose them well, brief them properly, and know what New Zealand law lets an employer ask and find out. Here is how reference checks, criminal records and Police vetting work, and what to do if one goes against you.
Choosing your referees
A recent direct manager is usually your strongest referee, because they saw how you worked day to day. Two or three names is plenty, and if you are new to work, a lecturer, coach or volunteer coordinator who has seen you take responsibility works too. Leave family off: for Children's Act safety checks, the Ministry of Education's guide says referees must not be related to you, and at least one should be a recent or previous direct line manager. If your current manager does not know you are looking, say so, and offer their name once you are the preferred candidate.
Brief them before anyone calls
Ask each referee before you give their name, every time. Send them the ad or position description, the CV you sent, and the two or three things you would like them to be able to speak to.
It is worth telling them that the Privacy Commissioner advises employers to check whether a referee's comments are given in confidence, because if they are not, the employer may have to show them to you if you ask. Afterwards, thank them and tell them how it went.
What the Privacy Act says about reference checks
The Office of the Privacy Commissioner's recruitment guidance to employers covers the main points:
- They can only contact the referees you nominate. To get a reference from anyone else, they must first get your express consent.
- They need your prior consent for vetting, including qualification, criminal conviction, Police vetting and credit checks, and should only check credit if the role carries significant financial risk.
- They must not ask for your social media logins, ask you to befriend them online, or ask someone already connected with you online to check you out.
- What they collect is for that recruitment only, unless you give express consent to another use.
Since May 2026, privacy principle 3A has also required an organisation that collects information about you from someone else to take reasonable steps to make sure you know it was collected, why, and who will receive it, unless an exception applies, such as you already knowing.
Under principle 6 you can ask for the personal information an organisation holds about you, including what a referee said. Under section 50, it can withhold evaluative material, such as a reference, if the referee was promised, expressly or by implication, that it would stay confidential. Even then, the Privacy Commissioner says you can ask for a summary or the main points.
Backdoor references
A backdoor reference is when an employer contacts someone you did not name, such as a former manager they happen to know. The Privacy Commissioner's guidance is that this needs your express consent first. In a 2002 case under the previous Privacy Act, a government department contacted a former employer the applicant had not nominated, without telling her. The Commissioner found it had breached principle 3, which requires organisations to tell people about the collection of their information, because applicants had not been told that references might be followed up. The department paid $1,000 compensation and changed its policy.
Read any consent wording on an application form before you sign it, since that is one place an employer can ask to contact people beyond your referees. If you think someone was contacted without your consent, ask the employer who they spoke to, and request what was said.
Criminal records and the Clean Slate scheme
Your Ministry of Justice criminal record lists criminal and traffic convictions. It does not include infringements, charges that have not gone to court or did not end in a conviction, Police diversion, Youth Court charges or overseas convictions. You can request your own record online for free. The Ministry aims to respond within 20 working days and answers around 90% of requests in under a week.
Under the Criminal Records (Clean Slate) Act 2004, your convictions are concealed automatically if you have had no convictions in the last 7 years, have never had a custodial sentence, have never been convicted of a specified offence listed in the Act, have fully paid any fine, compensation, reparation or costs ordered in a criminal case, have never had an order made about you under section 65 of the Land Transport Act 1998, and have never been held in hospital by a court in a criminal case instead of being sentenced, due to your mental condition.
If you qualify, you can say you have no convictions when you are asked about your criminal record in New Zealand. The full record still counts in some situations, including Police, prison and probation roles, judges, justices of the peace and community magistrates, and national security roles, and specified offences under the Children's Act still show in Police vets for core children's worker roles. Clean Slate does not apply outside New Zealand.
Police vetting and work with children
A Police vet can include more than your criminal record. Only an authorised agency can request one, with your signed consent. As well as convictions not covered by Clean Slate, it can include other relevant information Police hold, such as pending charges, charges without conviction, Youth Court charges, involvement in family violence and overseas convictions. The agency, not Police, decides what the result means for the job, and you are entitled to see and ask for a copy of your results.
Under the Children's Act 2014, government-funded services such as schools, early childhood services, hospitals and publicly funded social services must safety check the people they pay to work with children, before they start and at least every three years. A safety check includes identity confirmation, at least 5 years of work history, an interview, at least one referee, a Police vet and a risk assessment.
If you would be the only person present with the children, or have primary responsibility or authority over them, it is a core children's worker role. People convicted of a specified offence listed in Schedule 2 of the Act cannot be employed in a core role unless they hold a core worker exemption, which you apply for yourself through Te Kāhui Kāhu, including while training or before you are employed. An exemption lasts indefinitely unless revoked, although each employer still decides whether you are suitable.
If a reference goes badly
- Ask the employer, politely, whether anything in the checks concerned them, and whether you can respond.
- Ask for what was said with a principle 6 request to the employer, or to your former employer if a manager there gave the reference. If it was given in confidence, ask for a summary.
- Ask for a correction. Under principle 7 you can ask for wrong information to be corrected, and if the organisation will not correct it, ask it to attach your statement of correction. Once it does either, it must tell anyone it has already disclosed the information to, so far as is reasonably practicable.
- Complain in the right order. The Privacy Commissioner will not accept a complaint until you have raised it with the organisation, and because of high volumes an investigation can wait up to twelve months for an investigator. For a wider employment dispute, the Commissioner's guidance points to the Employment Relations Authority.
- Change your list. If a referee will not give you a fair reference, stop using them and brief a replacement properly.
Know who has been called, and for what
Jobtracker logs the CV version, cover letter and referees you gave for every application, so you can brief the right person before the phone rings.
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