Who publishes this, and how to answer
The publisher
macrohard.nz — The Hollowing Index — is published by macrohard.nz, an independent, non-partisan project. Contact: hello@macrohard.nz. The site’s code is public, and every reading on it links to the document it was taken from.
When a name is published, and on what
A finding names a person or organisation only when it rests on one of two kinds of evidence, and each finding says which:
[A] official record. A court or tribunal finding, a conviction, a regulator or disciplinary order, a disqualification, an Electoral Commission return, a royal commission or inquiry report, a statement in the House (Hansard), or an official release under the Official Information Act. The finding links the record itself. Where the record quotes an allegation — a charge, a witness statement, a party’s words — the finding reports it as what the record contains, not as the index’s own claim.
[B] reported, not tested. A claim a named news outlet has published about a public actor. The finding says which outlet reported it and states plainly that the index has not tested the claim. The index adds no accusation of its own: nothing is published here that the record it cites cannot defend.
Only public actors are named — holders of public office, candidates, senior officials, disclosed donors above the reporting threshold, entities named in an official finding, and the organisations that act on the public account. Private individuals are never named, and sub-threshold donors stay in the aggregate.
How a finding is verified
Every finding is checked, by a person, against the evidence it cites before it is published, and that check is recorded with the finding: who verified it, when, and a note. The schema that holds a finding refuses anything else — a Tier-B line without a named outlet, a statement the record cannot carry, or an unfounded characterisation of motive is not a finding this site can express.
Right of reply
Before a finding naming someone is published, that person or organisation is offered a reply. A reply received is published with the finding, in full, reproduced exactly as sent, and kept as long as the finding is — see the reply panels on each finding. If you believe you have been named in error, or a finding about you is wrong, write to hello@macrohard.nz: an error is corrected or withdrawn as set out below, and the change is logged.
Corrections and withdrawals
Corrections are made in public. Every change to a reading carries a dated entry in the change log. A withdrawn finding keeps its tombstone: that it existed, when it was filed, when it fell, and why. Its statement and evidence stop being published, so a retracted accusation cannot keep circulating on its old page. Anyone may request a correction or a withdrawal at hello@macrohard.nz; a subject who disputes a finding is answered, and the dispute is shown against the finding while it is being resolved.
Privacy
The index holds only the information a public record or a named report already carries, about public actors acting in public roles, plus what they send us in a reply. Replies and correspondence are kept for three years and then deleted. The site collects no analytics profiles, sets no cross-site tracking, and asks no reader for personal information. Where the Privacy Act’s information principles and the news-activity exception in section 8 could meet a named finding, we have not had that tested by counsel; the practical policy is stated above, and questions are answered by the contact below.
Corrections, replies, and any other contact: hello@macrohard.nz · the method this record is kept to