Barker Rick: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Barker Rick: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:647;Page:16127] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 I want to respond to members and sum up the situation we have now. Firstly I come back to Sandra Goudie’s point. She says that there is no point to this legislation that it is unnecessary and that identity theft is not an issue. I go back to the several examples I gave earlier in the discussion. Her caucus colleague David Bennett the member of Parliament for Hamilton East wrote to say that he had been approached by a constituent who was concerned that his brother had been able to obtain a copy of his Andrew’s birth certificate by simply filling in a form and paying the fee. The brother was therefore able to obtain a driver’s licence in Andrew’s name. That is what he said had occurred. That is identity theft. Sandra Goudie herself in a parliamentary written question asked how the birth certificate of a dead New Zealand girl was obtained by Laurelyn Smith. Again Laurelyn Smith used that information for fraudulent purposes. Another high-profile case I alluded to was that of the people who used the registers to get information to steal identities and then fraudulently obtain New Zealand passports for Israelis. 
The fact is that the information had to be given by law. That is what it required. If anybody turned up the law required the registry staff to give that person a certificate—an authorised duplicate. There was no other option. The staff could not just change the requirement by their own wish or will; I could not change it by regulation. That was the law so we had to change the law. We have taken up by coincidence the suggestion of John Hayes who was here earlier. He asked why the people who turned up should not have to identify themselves. Sandra Goudie said the same thing. I say to Sandra Goudie and to John Hayes that that is exactly what the legislation now requires. If people are going to turn up and get a certificate they have to produce some form of identification. 
But I come back to the point that Sandra Goudie has missed. The certificate is not of value in itself. It is the information on it that is of value such as the name of the person the date of his or her birth and the names of his or her parents. From that someone can start to track back. When that person has the information he or she then has the ability to steal an identity. It is not the certificate itself that is of value; it is the information that is on it. We require people to give that information to the State and therefore the State has an obligation to do its utmost to protect the information. That is why in the future people will have completely open access to the registers. Nothing will be closed off to them. There will be no limitation on family searches for family members or on anything like that—none whatsoever. But when people turn up to seek the information they will have to identify themselves as to who they are and identify the information that they are taking. 
If someone wants to access my record he or she will be able to do that. But when that person does that his or her name and details will be taken. Sometime later if I find that that person has been up to mischief and has been doing things with my name then I will be able to go to the registrar and ask about who has been there. If it happens to be the Hon Mark Burton I will be able to go to him and ask him what he has done with my information because I will know he has had access to it. That is the purpose of the provision. We will then be able to track the mischief. It is simple. So we will do as John Hayes suggested. If people want a driver’s licence or a gun licence then they have to prove who they are. It will be the same in respect of the register. 
The other good thing about this legislation is that it will enhance the capability of researchers to get information. At the moment if someone wants to get information from the births deaths and marriages register he or she has to identify the individual names. Because all the information will now be on a computer data sheet people will be able to do group searches in areas where they could not before. The research ability will be enhanced significantly by this legislation. [ 
Interruption 
] I want to assure the member who interjects that he is absolutely wrong on that; he has been misadvised. 
Sandra Goudie 
: He’s not wrong. You can’t read. 
Hon RICK BARKER 
: I say to Sandra Goudie and the Committee that we have good legislation. Members have agreed I think to a very good compromise: a balance between open access and ensuring as best we can the protection of the identities of New Zealanders who are on that register from theft and exploitation. 
There has been a good process on this bill and I commend the House for that. I recommend to other members on the National side of the Chamber that they read the legislation now and think about their concerns. With the Supplementary Order Papers I am sure they will find that all of their concerns have been assuaged. This will be good and enduring legislation.