Hutchison Paul: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Hutchison Paul: Social Security (Entitlement Cards) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:639;Page:9165] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 We can certainly tell the Government is in trouble when its members start to become as shrill as Clayton Cosgrove did in his contribution—not to mention Russell Fairbrother and the Minister in the chair Winston Peters who talked about a primitive tribalistic mantra. I think we heard that from all three of those members. Indeed it is less than refreshing to hear Government members say they proudly wear their microchips in parliamentary passes and they are absolutely comfortable with that when clearly they do not know the full implications of exactly what is on those microchips. I would be very interested to know if the Minister could tell us precisely the full implications of the microchips that most Government members are wearing today. 
Rt Hon Winston Peters 
: What—are you asking now? 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: No no. I am not asking now; the Minister can stand up and have a call later. 
It is important in terms of the subsequent arrangements in Part 2 to look at the purpose which under clause 7 is to “allow the disclosure of information required to give effect to Part 1 in relation to cards the availability of which is based principally on the age and residence of a person or of his or her spouse or civil union partner or former spouse or civil union partner.” Relevant to that is the functional creep that Marie Shroff the Privacy Commissioner talked about. 
If we look at the information that came to the Social Services Committee back in February we can see that the key information on the card was outlined. The SuperGold Card was to be a concession card for New Zealand residents who are aged 65 or over or who otherwise qualify for New Zealand superannuation or for a veterans pension. The card was to be credit card - sized. It was to carry the holder’s name and number and to state whether the holder received New Zealand superannuation or a veterans pension or was eligible for community service card entitlements. A photograph for identification purposes was to be optional. Those key facts say absolutely nothing about any transmission devices microchipping or anything like that. The information did say that the card would automatically be sent to people who receive New Zealand superannuation or a veterans pension and other residents aged 65 or over would qualify for the card but would need to apply. That was back in February 2007. 
One then progresses on to the Social Services Committee report which indeed shows that functional creep is a reality. There we have the majority including the Labour Government and New Zealand First stating: “We received a submission that raised concerns about the use of microchips in the entitlement cards on such a large scale and recommended a review of the principles governing the use of such technology.” It seems extraordinary in the presence of people like Graham Stairmand from Grey Power and in the presence of advice from Marie Shroff and numerous others that this Labour - New Zealand First coalition Government just does not listen to them. It wants to rush this bill through. We understand entirely and we agree entirely that those over 65 should indeed receive all the entitlements to discounts that are available to them. That is great; we support it. But we think the Government should for once in its life display caution in this area which is very important to people and is encapsulated in the purpose of clause 7. 
So although we have seen a wonderful display of a primitive tribalistic mantra coming from the leader of New Zealand First not to mention from some senior Ministers of the Government one does have to worry considerably. I think the New Zealand public should be worrying considerably when we have Grey Power New Zealand saying we should hold on. Surely a microchip will not make one bit of difference to the efficacy of this card. It is much better to make sure that this very very questionable process in a field of considerably rapidly changing technology is looked at carefully.