Curran Clare: Privacy (Cross-border Information) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Curran Clare: Privacy (Cross-border Information) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:653;Page:2341] 
CLARE CURRAN (Labour—Dunedin South) 
: 
 I rise to support the Privacy (Cross-border Information) Amendment Bill which was introduced by the previous Labour Government on 2 July 2008. Before I address the bill I say that I have taken a bit of a poll of my Labour colleagues and I think the consensus is that we say “pry-vacy” and members on the opposite side of the House say “pri-vacy”. I think that says something about the differences between us. 
Tim Macindoe 
: What exactly? 
Hon Steve Chadwick 
: Make what you will of it. 
CLARE CURRAN 
: Yes. 
This bill is a Labour bill and therefore we support it. It is a good bill. It amends the Privacy Act 1993 by introducing new provisions dealing with the cross-border transfer of personal data. To complement these changes the bill includes new provisions that facilitate the cross-border enforcement of privacy laws. The aim of the bill is to reduce the likelihood of New Zealand’s being used as an intermediary for the avoidance of other States’ privacy laws. Currently the Privacy Act does not allow foreign nationals resident overseas to make information privacy requests and further nothing in the Act prevents data received from overseas from being transferred outside New Zealand to a jurisdiction that does not have adequate privacy protection. That means New Zealand is unable to provide the assurance requested by overseas trade partners that we can fully protect their privacy and their customers’ privacy. 
As previous speakers have said in an era of increasing globalisation and e-commerce our inability to give this assurance is a potential impediment to trade. So getting our privacy laws right is important both for individuals and for businesses. Major advances in technology have changed the way personal data is collected stored and used. The challenge for businesses is to ensure that the benefits obtained through using new technology do not compromise individuals’ expectations about the security and use of their personal information. Businesses must be able to assure their customers that their privacy will be respected. 
This bill complements a privacy review currently being undertaken by the Law Commission. I will talk a bit about that. The Law Commission is undertaking a review of privacy values technology change and international trends and their implications for New Zealand law. The terms of reference for the review were released in October 2006. The project is proceeding in stages with reports being made at each stage. In stage one of the project the Law Commission is undertaking a high-level policy overview to assess privacy values changes in technology and international trends and their implications for New Zealand’s civil criminal and statute law. The Law Commission will conduct a survey of these trends in conjunction with the Australian Law Reform Commission and a report on the overview will be published. 
In stage two of the project the Law Commission is considering whether the law relating to public registers requires systematic alteration as a result of privacy considerations and emerging technology. In stage three of the project the commission is considering and reporting on how adequate New Zealand’s civil law remedies are for invasions of privacy including tortious and equitable remedies and the adequacy of New Zealand’s criminal law to deal with invasions of privacy. In stage four of the project the commission will review the Privacy Act 1993 with a view to updating it taking into account any changes in the legislation that have been made by the time this stage of the project has been reached. Stages one and two were completed in early 2008 with the publication of a study paper and a report and the Law Commission is currently engaged in stages three and four of the project. 
In commenting on the review and the introduction of this bill the Privacy Commissioner Marie Shroff last year welcomed the introduction of the Privacy (Cross-border Information) Amendment Bill saying it would have benefits for New Zealand’s trading opportunities and would enhance personal rights. She said the bill would have two main impacts: “first it will help ensure New Zealand law meets the expectations of our trading partners and second it will remove an anomaly so that people who live overseas can access their personal information that is held in New Zealand.” She said: “New Zealand business is operating in a global data processing economy and our data protection law needs to be recognised as stacking up internationally. It is important that our privacy law keeps pace in order to facilitate international trading opportunities. These changes should help to secure a finding from the European Union that New Zealand law offers an adequate standard of data protection. The Bill will also give the Privacy Commissioner the ability to cooperate with overseas privacy authorities when dealing with or transferring privacy complaints. This reflects a priority area in the privacy work of both APEC and the OECD.” 
Labour supports this bill. In essence it will remove the current restrictions on who can make an information privacy request it will enable public sector agencies to charge for making personal information available to overseas foreign nationals it will provide for the referral of cross-border complaints to the appropriate privacy enforcement authority and it will establish a mechanism to control the transfer of information outside of New Zealand to circumvent the privacy laws of the country from where the information came. 
This bill is a Labour bill. We commend it to the House but we wonder to ourselves where National’s ideas are and how this bill will stimulate the economy save jobs and lift us out of a recession. There are important things the Government could be putting before us in the middle of a recession—not that this bill is not important. It is important but we have to wonder—particularly in light of a global financial crisis of which the likely effects have been described as the greatest financial crisis since the Great Depression and the most severe recession since World War II: job losses; businesses going to the wall in many countries such as the US the UK and those in Europe; financial companies falling over; and thousands of small investors losing their savings. To some extent that is happening in New Zealand. The International Monetary Fund chief economist has advised world Governments to commit whatever it will take to avoid a depression which means making clear policies and acting decisively—doing too much rather than too little. Gee where is the Government’s plan and where are the measures that are being put into place immediately to deal with the financial crisis? 
This bill is a good bill and we support it. As the Hon Lianne Dalziel talked about data protection is extremely important and it has important trade implications. They are both extremely important issues that this legislation is designed to address. The bill has been on the agenda for some time and we commend it to the House.