Curran ClareHon CLARE CURRAN (Minister of Broadcasting Communications and Digital Media): Thank you Madam Assistant Speaker. It's with huge relief that I stand tonight to talk to this reform of the Privacy Act 1993 as recommended by the Law Commission's 2011 review of this Act. It's with huge relief that I stand and congratulate the current Minister of Justice the Hon Andrew Little who has finally done what no justice Minister under the previous National Government could do or would do introducing much-needed privacy reforms. Nine years they were in power—nine years. This review of the Privacy Act was completed by the Law Commission in 2011—three justice Ministers no privacy reforms under the whole of their nine years.It is a hallmark of this Government that it's introduced this legislation as a priority. As the Minister mentioned it's not perfect; it still needs more work. Whether that work can be completely done in the select committee or whether it will need another iteration down the track at least it's in the Parliament it will go to select committee and it will get passed. It is a huge relief. It is much needed for our country. Privacy reforms are utterly utterly fundamental to a healthy functioning democracy.I actually want to put the record straight on the time line around this piece of legislation: 25 years since its inception in 1993; 12 years actually in 2006 since the Law Commission was asked by the previous Labour Government to undertake a review of the legislation; seven years since that report was released by the Law Commission; six years since that report was tabled in Parliament by the then Minister of Justice Simon Power; four years since the then next Minister of Justice Judith Collins finally issued a press release saying that there would be some reform—Michael Wood: Press releases?Hon CLARE CURRAN: —a press release indeed in 2014 just before the 2014 election—of the Privacy Act; and then silence a deadly silence.What happened in the interim? Well what happened in the interim was that there were privacy breaches. There was a raft of privacy breaches whether it was the Ministry of Social Development ACC district health boards—numerous other Government departments including the Ministry of Justice where there were privacy breaches where public confidence in the Government's ability to manage public data had sunk to an all-time low—no privacy reforms.What else happened during that time? There was reform to our security legislation: the Search and Surveillance Act the Government Communications Security Bureau Act and the TICSA Act which is the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act. All of those things had a place and there was a lot of public debate but alongside that needed to go privacy law reform so that citizens would feel as if their rights were being protected that their data and their ability to have their own personal information have a value put on it by the then Government—but no; silence. That's what happened. That is the history of this piece of legislation and it is a shameful history.Thankfully this Government is putting it right. We are putting into the select committee a piece of legislation that has a key purpose to promote and protect people's privacy and to give the Privacy Commissioner a stronger role. Obviously it's going to do a lot of other things as well but these things are critical and they're much overdue. While this legislation may not go far enough it will have the opportunity to be improved at select committee and there can be more work done on the modernisation taking things forward in 2018—forward—which is work that this Government is undertaking.Technology has revolutionised the way that we disclose share store and release information. That revolution is only going to increase and by their very nature revolutions cause momentous disruption. The digital revolution that has occurred—and if you look back over particularly those last seven years much has changed but the protection of people's privacy has not been modernised has not had a value put on it and that is why this is so important.Having the individual and the importance of their personal data as the key purpose of this new Act is a very powerful statement for our citizens. It sends a clear message that this Government sees people as central to the business of Government and keeping them safe is the point of the work that we're doing.The Privacy Act has historically sought to protect people's privacy while allowing information use by legitimate users such as Government and businesses. But having people's trust is vital for a democracy and a key part of that trust is people knowing that the information that they provide to Government is being kept safe and being used for legitimate purposes and that there is a framework around that to deal with breaches for there to be mandatory disclosure of breaches and for there to be enforcement by our Privacy Commissioner when those rules are not being upheld. That finally is what this reform of this legislation is going to do.People also have rights over their data. They should be informed when how and by whom their data is being collected and used and that includes telling people when artificial intelligence or algorithms are making decisions on their data. This is a key piece of work that needs to be looked at closely in select committee. If there is a need for more reforms around this this should occur as soon as possible. This Government is looking into doing this work.Ensuring that we've got a robust digital rights framework is one of my priorities as the Minister for Government Digital Services and the Associate Minister of State Services (Open Government). That is a piece of work that is being done in parallel with this legislation along with six other countries the Digital 7 countries around looking at a digital rights framework which will take this privacy reform even further to modernise it and to give the public of New Zealand comfort that we consider that their human rights should be considered in a digital context and should be valued.This is a world-leading piece of work that is being undertaken. It will provide further reforms around our privacy regime and it's something that we can be proud of. This is a much-needed long-overdue piece of legislation. It's something that I'm very proud to be standing and talking to finally after having stood on the other side for nine years calling for it along with many others in civil society and along with the Privacy Commissioners that have been active in the last 10 years. It goes back to a previous Labour Government that instituted a review of the primary piece of legislation in 2006. It's taken 12 years to get to this point—12 years. Why is it that that previous Government was silent on privacy law reform? Why is it that they couldn't get it to the House? I thank them tonight for their support to select committee. I hope that the Justice Committee will treat this piece of legislation with the rigour that it deserves and that it does receive full support across the House. I commend this bill to the House.