Lee Melissa: New Zealand Business Number Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeLee Melissa: New Zealand Business Number Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 05 May 2015. Volume:705;Page:3191. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]MELISSA LEE (National): It is a great pleasure to rise to speak on this first reading of the New Zealand Business Number Bill. Before I actually talk a little bit about the substance of the bill I would like to commend the member who just sat down David Clark. I look forward to working with him and his colleagues opposite in the Commerce Committee because I think we do actually work quite well together. Having said that I commend the member for saying that he does not like an extra layer of bureaucracy. I think the member came in in 2011 and does not really remember the times when the previous Labour Government was in power and there were extreme layers of bureaucracy that this Government has been spending a lot of time unravelling.This New Zealand Business Number Bill is part of the Government’s Better Public Services agenda. It aims to reduce the cost to businesses of dealing with the Government by 25 percent by 2017. I know that Dr Clark just before he sat down said that he wants this to benefit the hard-working community—people who work for their families and you know everyone. That is everyone not just businesses. He mentioned the fact that there are already 1.1 million New Zealand Business Numbers extended to companies and what this bill does is to extend it even further to those that are not necessarily companies—to those sole traders partners and trusts that also need to have this number in order to operate better and take the benefit from what we are doing.All key Government agencies that work regularly with businesses will be required to recognise and use the New Zealand Business Number by 2017. I actually have to applaud that. The New Zealand Business Number is a 13-digit number—a single unique identifier in a New Zealand - specific numerical series provided by GS1 which is a global standards organisation. Each number uniquely identifies a business and may be used in interactions with the Government and also with other businesses. The bill’s purpose is to enable certain business entities to obtain or be allocated with a New Zealand Business Number. The New Zealand Business Number will make it easier quicker and less complicated for businesses to interact with the Government.I guess it is sort of like going back to one’s country of birth. My country of birth actually has a registration number for all citizens who are born there. We are identified with a unique number for ourselves as well as the birth date and the year that we are born. We are actually identified by a number. I suppose that is how the social security number works in the United States. To make sure that your unique number actually is specifically for you Mr Deputy Speaker you and I would have a different number so that you and I would not be confused. This is exactly the kind of idea effect that this New Zealand Business Number will have on businesses so that businesses will not be confused—so that one business will not be confused with another. They will have a unique number specific to their business.This has significance because New Zealand Business Numbers will make it easier for businesses to work and interact with the Government as well. Businesses will no longer have to continuously update their data with a myriad of different Government databases as businesses currently have to use multiple numbers issued by different Government agencies. I think of when I did a company search when I was a journalist. Every time I logged on to try to find a company I was given a number. Every time I did it again I was given another number and another number. It was a constant numbers game. If I had one number identifying myself as a constant user of that website and I was identified as a specific person who was allowed to use and connect with the Government agency I think it would have made life so much easier.Also I think small businesses operating in New Zealand are often sole traders that have to do everything. Not only do they have to work the job but also they have to invoice do marketing and drive as well. Often time is of the essence and time spent dealing with office work and dealing with administration means time that is not spent on making the dollars for their families and their businesses. Anything that we can do to reduce the number that is spent on administration is something that is great I think. As working mothers even when we are doing internet banking or mobile banking when we have an app that can actually identify our payees immediately so that we do not have to punch in the numbers all the time or constantly it reduces the time that we spend on the internet doing these things. So for a business that is actually spending a lot of time on admin if we can at least do something to reduce the time that it is spending on admin I think that is something that is wonderful.I say that specifically for the ethnic migrant communities who do business admin is an added burden often because of the language barriers. This time spent on admin is extra on top of the language issues that they already face. So if we can make life easier for them I think it is a wonderful thing.The bill sets up a New Zealand Business Number Register where business information will be held publicly viewable and searchable. However it is also designed to protect the security and confidentiality of information under this bill and the privacy of individuals in business. I think that is paramount. I agree with the member Dr David Clark who actually talked about the security issue. I think we all worry about the security issue.Kanwaljit Singh Bakshi: You should have taken his number.MELISSA LEE: I look slightly different from him I think. I think the security issue is a very important one and nobody wants a breach and identity theft. We have had issues even before this Business Number. We have had in the past instances where people’s identities had been stolen and I think that will continue to happen. We try to put security protection in there to actually prevent people from stealing other people’s identities but when somebody purposely goes out to steal somebody else’s identity with the purpose of committing a crime I am unsure as to whether anything could actually prevent them from doing so. So it will be very interesting to hear the public submissions on this bill. I look forward to the discussions that the select committee will have on these issues. I look forward to the advice we will get on that particular aspect of the bill.In the future once the regime is fully implemented businesses will be able to update their details in one place. That has to be a good thing—to automatically update others without businesses having to go through a complicated and time-consuming process as I had earlier alluded to. This means less time and effort on Government administration and more time for business owners to focus their efforts on productivity growth and exporting their goods. Having been to Korea to sign a free-trade agreement deal I think anybody who can grow their business grow New Zealand is doing a great job and we should reduce the workload that they have in admin.This is a great bill. I commend it to the House.