Ngaro Alfred: Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Ngaro Alfred: Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 12 February 2013. Volume:687;Page:7764. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
ALFRED NGARO (National) 
: 
 It is an honour to take a call on this Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill this evening. The previous member Jan Logie spoke about the need to meet the needs of our citizens their cares and their concerns. We hear a lot about the breaches of privacy but what we do not hear a lot about is the benefits. There are thousands literally thousands who have benefited from the sharing of information that is so needed to meet the very needs that she has talked about. 
The Privacy (Information Sharing) Bill is about supporting Better Public Services by providing a new mechanism to share personal information more effectively and with more certainty. The key word here in the message I suppose is about balancing—balancing people’s rights to privacy with the need to protect vulnerable New Zealanders. That is very much at the heart of this Government in wanting to ensure this. 
It is really important that as we began to hear some of the submissions—you would have heard that there were 20 submissions and 18 were in full support—some of the comments that were coming out were that there were a number of supporters who were absolutely clearly in support of the current safeguards that the bill contains. In fact even the Privacy Commissioner noted that the safeguards were mutually supporting and that none of them should be reduced. 
Information sharing enables agencies to work together to examine and understand customer needs as a whole. This can lead to significant service benefits for individuals. Nevertheless there are risks associated with information sharing that need to be carefully managed. These risks can include failures of security duplication of inaccurate information and the use of information in ways not anticipated by the subject of the data. 
We consider that the protections in this bill strike a workable balance. The protections are not too onerous for agencies that wish to have information-sharing agreements and ensure strong and practical privacy safeguards so people can be certain that the Government is acting as a trustworthy steward of their information. Trust is important too. Again as the Privacy Commissioner noted in her submission “The framework in the Bill provides a package of safeguards which are practical and mutually supporting. The Bill currently represents a fine balance between providing the flexibility agencies are requesting and ensuring that privacy considerations are given due weight.” 
Finally on the privacy safeguards in the bill when drawing up information-sharing agreements agencies must consult with the Privacy Commissioner. The commissioner may provide a report to the relevant Minister on any related privacy issues before agreements are approved. The Minister must take the report into account before agreements are finalised. The Minister must be satisfied that the agreement does not unreasonably invade the privacy of individuals and contains adequate safeguards to protect privacy before it can be approved by an Order in Council. I commend this bill in its second reading to the House.