Bennett Paula: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Bennett Paula: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
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PAULA BENNETT (National) 
: 
 As a member of the Social Services Committee that looked at this bill I would like to help the Committee on a couple of matters. One in particular is the Housing New Zealand Corporation database and how that information got into the hands of the Labour Party so it could distribute that material as a scaremongering tactic—which very much describes Labour’s tactics during the election campaign. Interestingly enough the corporation’s officials made no response when we asked how its database came to be used by Labour. This raised quite some concern for the National Party as the corporation deals with information and the bill is about information sharing and information matching. We asked the corporation—given that something is already so wrong with its database that information could get into the wrong hands and be used maliciously as it was during the campaign—what this means as far as information matching and this bill are concerned. Well everyone looked at each other rather sideways and gulped three times but no one could actually come up with any answers. 
I ask for a bit of caution. I certainly follow on from the previous speaker Nathan Guy in asking the Minister to take a call on this matter because it is a vitally important question that I think New Zealanders need to have answered. We are talking about information matching about a database and about sharing information between departments. We need to be careful that people’s information is being treated with the respect it deserves. Obviously we have seen an actual case of that information having been used in a way— 
Phil Heatley 
: For political purposes. 
PAULA BENNETT 
: It has been used purely for political purposes as my colleague Phil Heatley says. As a consequence one does need to think about how respect for people’s information is observed. 
I am a real advocate for those who need help at times in their lives when they are perhaps struggling and find themselves in a situation they did not expect—being widowed raising children on their own due to circumstances that are outside their control or losing their job through changes within an industry. They have the opportunity to receive a handout from the State so that they can get through that part and get on with the rest of their lives. I know personally the sense of self-satisfaction one can have from being in the workforce and looking after oneself and one’s own. I caution that when we are matching information and making sure that people receive what they perhaps need to get them through such times we do not turn this country into a welfare-dependent State. 
National is certainly looking at second and third generation Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants. We say that by all means we should help those who cannot help themselves in times of need. But let us be very careful that we are not turning this country into a place that has intergenerational dependency where people lose the aspiration to get ahead and do something for themselves because there is nothing like the sense of self-belief that people have when they can look after themselves and provide a role model for others. I passionately believe that the only way to avoid that dependency is through paid work and I recognise the work the Government is doing in many areas as it pushes towards payment towards paid work. 
However I would like the Minister to answer the question of how the database information that was used for malicious purposes at election time came to be released. The matter is certainly of some concern to the National Party. We have asked questions officially and through the select committee. We have not had responses to those questions at all. In fact when we met with the Office of the Privacy Commissioner about this matter and asked its officials questions around the issue they could not answer the question as to how that information had got out either. Moving forward I would like to address other parts of this bill later in the Committee stage but now I ask the Minister to give us some verification on the matters I have raised.