Hutchison Paul: Corrections (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill Customs and Excise (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
Hutchison Paul: Corrections (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill Customs and Excise (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill — Third Readings 
[Volume:646;Page:15378] 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON (National—Port Waikato) 
: 
 I am grateful for the opportunity to contribute to the third reading of these three bills—the Corrections (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill the Customs and Excise (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill and the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation (Social Assistance) Amendment Bill—which have resulted from the division of the Social Assistance (Debt Prevention Minimisation) Amendment Bill. This legislation is intended to enable the Ministry of Social Development to prevent and recover debts and to detect more readily the misuse of the social security system the student allowance system and the student loan system by broadening the data-matching provisions. 
National members are very pleased to be able to support these bills. We have enjoyed working in the Social Services Committee on a pretty much bipartisan arrangement with regard to this particularly highly constructive and worthwhile legislation. 
Naturally we have to ask why it has taken 7 to 8 years—until the dying days of the Labour administration—before this Government finally got around to doing something about debt. The facts are that when the Labour Government came into office the debt owed by beneficiaries to the Ministry of Social Development was in the order of $320 million. It is now a whopping $760 million. As the Chief Executive of the Ministry of Social Development Peter Hughes said it has gone from 49 percent of beneficiaries who were in debt to Work and Income to 70 percent now. That is a huge— 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: That’s incorrect. 
Dr PAUL HUTCHISON 
: The Minister is saying that that is incorrect. Whatever it is it is a huge proportion and it is hugely worrying that beneficiaries have managed to get themselves so deeply into debt. 
The ministry officials themselves pointed out in their report the very significant concerns that happen when this level of debt goes on. They actually say that being over-indebted can also reduce the financial advantages of returning to work and that it may in fact act as a barrier to employment. We know that when beneficiaries incur debt it can act as a significant disincentive for them to enter the workforce as the level of repayment is often reduced by creditors while a person remains on a benefit. Once the debtor starts earning an income creditors often start seeking higher levels of debt repayment. This can substantially reduce the financial gains to be made from working. 
Here we have the Labour Government which has let this very concerning situation expand over the last 8 years to the point where we have in the order of 70 percent of beneficiaries being in debt to Work and Income. So it is appropriate that we the National Opposition do everything we can to hasten bringing in this legislation. 
I would just like to mention a couple of aspects of this legislation as we pass it through its third reading. One is the issue of overriding the Privacy Act. This posed a concern to officials from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner but they viewed it as being a reasonable thing to do because it is so important that tangible instruments are put in place to minimise this debt. But in doing so it is important to make sure that there are mitigating measures to ensure that the people involved are appropriately data matched. 
During the discussions in the select committee it was pointed out just how much technology has improved data matching over the last 5 to 10 years and how much more it will improve it over the next 5 to 10 years. However any data-matching system is fallible and there is a strong possibility that from time to time the systems will fail either technically or because of human error. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner said that it wants to give particular attention to the monitoring and reporting of matching this information in the future and I would make the plea that this does indeed occur. 
I understand that the Privacy Commissioner in fulfilling her role of reporting annually on all authorised information matches will be able to monitor any impacts that may result from the changes introduced by this legislation. I think it is very important that she makes it clear to Parliament and to the select committee what the effects of this legislation are because there are overriding principles to consider—the principles of natural justice. We should not just pass laws; we should also ensure that they are rigorously followed up in terms of monitoring. 
National is very pleased to be able to support these bills. We are very conscious of the fact that the Labour Government has let the situation of beneficiary debt get further and further out of hand over the last 8 to 9 years. 
We are very concerned that the Labour Government has not had efficient machinery within organisations such as the Ministry of Social Development. In fact I understand that over the last 8 years while the Ministry of Social Development has increased the number of front-line social workers by about 20 to 30 percent the bureaucracy in the ministry has increased by a whopping 106 percent. That again is the sort of thing we must be absolutely certain to not let drift on under a Labour Government. Taxpayers want their money to be spent well and beneficiaries in debt do not want to be in the situation where because of inefficiencies in the Government’s system their own benefits remain at a very low level. 
Beneficiary drift and a failure to contain beneficiaries’ debts has been a major problem in New Zealand. A future National Government is determined to ensure that the minimisation of this will be driven hard in the future. It is timely that this legislation is enacted and we support it.