Martin TraceyELECTRONIC INTERACTIONS REFORM BILLSecond ReadingHon TRACEY MARTIN (Minister of Internal Affairs): I move That the Electronic Interactions Reform Bill be now read a second time. The bill modernises 17 pieces of legislation to help enable digital interactions between individuals businesses and Government. The bill is part of wider efforts towards a digital transformation across Government to meet New Zealanders' expectations for public services that are easily and readily accessible through digital devices. As the new Minister of Internal Affairs I would like to thank the Government Administration Committee for its constructive consideration of the bill. I would also like to thank the eight submitters on the bill particularly the two submitters who made oral submissions to the committee. I was particularly pleased to see that the Privacy Commissioner was supportive of the parts of the bill that his submission commented on. The Government is making good progress on developing digital services so that a wide range of Government services are available both online and offline. This demonstrates the Government's commitment to continue to make it easier for New Zealanders to interact with Government. Progress is being made in developing integrated systems so that people can easily access services from the different agencies and organisations they deal with when they have a significant life event such as having a child. The first integrated service went live with the first release of SmartStart in December 2016 and the first anniversary of this service is next week. The Department of Internal Affairs the Inland Revenue Department the Ministry of Social Development and the Ministry of Health have worked together to develop SmartStart which provides step-by-step information on one website to help new parents access a range of Government services. It has had over 150000 visitors in its first year and over 10000 New Zealanders use SmartStart to share their new baby's registered birth information with the Ministry of Social Development. This removes the need for these new parents to provide a paper birth certificate and fill out an application form and it has also resulted in approximately 70 percent of them no longer needing to attend a face-to-face interview. It is in this context that this bill supports efforts to ensure New Zealand continues to be a leader in Government digital transformation. The bill has four parts. Part 1 of the bill amends the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 1995 the Marriage Act 1955 and the Civil Union Act 2004 to allow individuals to apply electronically for certain services such as applying for a marriage licence without having to front up to an office to complete a statutory declaration. Part 2 of the bill amends the Electronic Identity Verification Act 2012 to allow consent-based use of an individual's photograph collected as part of the application process for a RealMe verified identity. Part 3 of the bill amends 11 Acts relating to the commerce and consumer affairs portfolio to expressly allow certain types of notices to be served by email. Part 3 also makes amendments to the current requirements for an individual or business to appear before Government agencies for an interview. These amendments will allow the requirements to be met using an audio link or video link to conduct these interactions remotely where both the individual and the agency agree. Part 4 of the bill amends the Conservation Act 1987 to ensure that fishing and game hunting licence holders can vote online in Fish & Game Council elections if they wish. Part 4 of the bill also amends the Wildlife Act 1953 to allow the image of the game bird habitat stamp to be incorporated within a game hunting licence rather than requiring a physical stamp to be stuck to each licence. This change will help the online sale of licences and will meet anticipated future demand for digital licences potentially accessible by portable electronic devices. The eight public submissions covered all parts of the bill and provided useful perspectives on the proposals. The Government Administration Committee has recommended amendments to the bill in response to some of the issues raised in the submissions to help ensure the bill achieves its stated objectives. The Government supports these and a number of amendments have been made to reflect these recommendations which I will speak to briefly. Technical amendments have been made to Part 1 and include amendments to clauses 14 and 21 in the bill which amend the Civil Union Act and Marriage Act respectively to provide greater certainty that individuals based overseas can apply for a civil union or marriage licence using electronic channels enabled by the bill. The committee recommended amendments in clauses in Part 2 of the bill that amend the Electronic Identity Verification Act. One recommendation is to amend clause 30 so that the photograph collected as part of the application process for a RealMe verified identity can be used to support the issuance of a broader range of identity documents such as a passport. This and other minor recommended changes have been made to Part 2 of the bill. I intend to introduce a technical Supplementary Order Paper to enable individuals to update their photographs. In Part 3 of the bill the committee recommended a new clause 61A to amend the Fair Trading Act 1986 to allow compulsory interviews to be held by audio link and audiovisual link with the agreement of the person and the Commerce Commission. This amendment—which is similar to clause 44 which amends the Commerce Act 1986—has been made. The committee also recommended changes to the clauses throughout Part 3 of the bill enabling the service of notices by email. The main purpose of these changes is to clarify that an agency that serves a notice by email needs to prove that it was properly sent to an email address actively used by the recipient. One amendment has also been made to Part 4 of the bill based on the committee's recommendations. This is an amendment to clause 82 which amends the Conservation Act 1987 to clarify that the Fish & Game Council can use online voting but must retain a postal voting option for its members in all council elections. In its report the committee also commented on the digital divide. This term generally refers to the gap between those who do and those who do not have internet access often because of geographic or affordability reasons. It can also cover differences in digital capability particularly between socio-economic groups. The focus of this bill is to enable access to services through new digital channels for individuals who choose to interact with Government departments. I agree with the committee about the importance of ensuring all New Zealanders—young and old whether in cities or regions—have the opportunity to take advantage of digital technology. Internationally New Zealand generally performs well on measures of digital access but not all New Zealanders are participating equally in the digital world. The Government will therefore pursue a number of initiatives that will be aimed at reducing the digital divide. This includes working with communities academics and industry representatives from the digital technology sector to understand the extent of digital disadvantage and to identify practical steps to address this. We will also identify the digital skills New Zealanders need to remain digitally engaged citizens. This will help Government and non-Government organisations develop a coordinated response to support digital inclusion. I look forward to working with the Minister for Government Digital Services the Hon Clare Curran to achieve this. Once again I thank the individuals and groups that made submissions on the bill and the Government Administration Committee for its improvements to the bill. The Electronic Interactions Reform Bill benefits New Zealanders because it will enable New Zealanders to complete more interactions with Government digitally. It is an important contribution to ongoing efforts across Government to provide services designed to meet the needs of New Zealanders in the digital age. I would mention however that the Government has a responsibility to ensure that it supports all our citizens regardless of their age and socio-economic background to be supported to use and to understand their access to these digital services if in only one way to cut the cost that they are now meeting when it comes to manual processes which are the other alternative. I commend the bill to the House.