Benson-Pope David: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Benson-Pope David: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3490] 
Hon DAVID BENSON-POPE (Minister for Social Development and Employment) 
on behalf of the 
 Minister of Housing 
: I move  
That the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill be now read a second time 
. The bill provides for information matching between Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Ministry of Social Development. It authorises the corporation to disclose to the ministry information relating to the corporation’s tenants and tenancies. 
The bill has been reported back from the Social Services Committee. I thank the committee for its careful consideration of the bill. There were two written submissions on the bill and I thank those submitters. The select committee recommended that the bill be passed with one minor technical amendment. References in other Acts and regulations to the Housing Restructuring Act 1992 need to be amended to reflect the new name of the principal Act. Subsequent to the introduction of the bill the Social Security (Temporary Additional Support) Regulations 2005 were promulgated and the bill has also been amended to include reference to those regulations. 
The information match between Housing New Zealand Corporation and the Ministry of Social Development follows initiatives in Budget 2003 and Budget 2004 for new and extended information-matching between various Government agencies and the Ministry of Social Development. The ministry has completed the implementation of higher-priority information matches with other agencies. Those matches have resulted in savings to taxpayers and have maintained the integrity of the social assistance system. The ministry has now engaged with Housing New Zealand Corporation to implement an information match. As with previous matches between Government agencies and the Ministry of Social Development this information match is subject to the provisions of the Privacy Act 1993 and the Privacy Commissioner will report back on the operation of the match. 
The information match will help to minimise the overpayment of benefits and student allowances help with the recovery of beneficiary and student debt that arises from any such overpayment and help with the detection of fraud. In addition to minimising benefit overpayments the information match may benefit tenants their partners and their dependants by enabling the Ministry of Social Development to address situations where people are not receiving their full entitlement to social assistance. For example the Ministry of Social Development may make a tenant who is leaving a Housing New Zealand Corporation tenancy aware of the accommodation supplement and other assistance that may be available from the Ministry of Social Development for private sector renters. 
Information-matching rules under the Privacy Act require that individuals who will be affected by the programme are notified. Housing New Zealand Corporation will undertake targeted publicity before the implementation of the information-matching programme and throughout its operation to comply with the information-matching rules in the Privacy Act. All new and existing Housing New Zealand Corporation tenants will be made aware that certain information supplied by the corporation may be provided to the Ministry of Social Development for information-matching purposes. The bill does not allow for the ministry to provide the corporation with personal information regarding tenants and their partners. 
The bill renames the Housing Restructuring Act 1992 as the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters Act 1992 to make it clear that the Act provides for tenancy matters. The bill also makes consequential amendments to the Privacy Act to include Housing New Zealand Corporation and Housing New Zealand Ltd as specified agencies for the purpose of information sharing. 
In closing I say the bill extends information matching between agencies so as to improve the integrity of the social assistance system and as such it should be welcomed by all. I am pleased to commend the bill to the House.