Barker Rick: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Barker Rick: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7810] 
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 I move  
That the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill be now read a first time. 
 At the appropriate time I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Government Administration Committee. This bill amends the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 which as the name suggests provides for the registration of information about births deaths and marriages. Information on adoptions changes of name sexual assignment and reassignment and civil unions are also registered under the Act. The Act provides for access to the registered information. These functions are administered by the Registrar-General of Births Deaths and Marriages. 
This bill has three main objectives. Firstly the bill defines the purposes of the registers held under the Act and introduces a new framework for providing access to the information that is consistent with those purposes. This new framework incorporates privacy safeguards and sanctions but also recognises that there are a range of legitimate reasons why people want to access the information. Secondly the bill enhances the registrar-general’s ability to ensure that registered information is accurate complete and meets the purposes for which it is collated. Thirdly the bill modernises the Act to take into account the new functions that the Births Deaths and Marriages registry performs and other social and technological changes that impact on the registry’s work. In recognition of the extension of the registry’s functions the bill will change the name of the Act to the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 1995. 
Information about births deaths and marriages in New Zealand has been officially registered for nearly 160 years. During this time the nature of the information collected about those life events has increased. In addition new registers such as the register of donors and donor offspring under the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act and the civil union register have recently been created. Clause 13 of the bill creates a new register of name changes by overseas-born people who are New Zealand citizens or permanent residents and provides for certificates of those name changes to be issued. People must be able to access and obtain evidence of information that supports their identity and family history. It is vital therefore that people can trust that their personal information is being held securely and that it is being used only for purposes that are consistent with those for which it was collated. Clause 6 of the bill sets out the purposes of the registers. They are a source of information about demographics health mortality and other matters important for Government as well as an official record of events both for evidential and research purposes. 
Clause 26 is a key provision that establishes the main aspect of the new access framework. In general terms individuals will be able to access their own records and those of their immediate family members and they will be able to authorise access by other people—for example genealogists. Access requests made by other people will have to be for legitimate purposes such as for administering estates. Clause 38 creates an offence of making a false statement in order to obtain access to information to which a person is not entitled. Open public access will still be available for historical records. These include records of births that occurred at least 100 years ago marriages and civil unions that occurred at least 80 years ago and deaths where the deceased person died at least 50 years ago or was born at least 80 years ago. 
This graduated approach to death records means that when a person has died later in life the death record will be available to the public at an earlier stage than that of a record of a person who died at a younger age. This recognises that death records contain information about the deceased person’s spouse or partner and parents who may still be alive and that the records contain information such as the cause of death that can be sensitive for family members. 
Clause 30 enables the registrar-general to provide Internet access for those historical records. This facility will be particularly useful for family history research. Similar access provisions exist in Australia Canada and many states of the United States of America. By allowing general public access to historical records only there will be less risk that people will be able to use the information relating to living or dead individuals for fraudulent purposes. 
Of course that in itself will not prevent identity crime; personal information is available from many other sources. Nor will it remove the need for organisations to have robust processes for verifying the identity of people with whom they do business. A birth certificate is not after all proof of the holder’s identity. It is only proof that a birth took place. However the bill will make it more difficult for fraudsters to obtain information that could be used for illegal purposes. This is reinforced in clause 38 which provides for increased penalties for offences involving the misuse of information. 
Clause 26 repeals the Act’s provision relating to the maintenance and production of indexes to the registers. Indexes were designed to facilitate the researching of paper-based records and are no longer necessary as the registry’s records are now computerised. Individuals and organisations that have already purchased indexes will still be able to use them for their own purposes but clause 30 creates the offence of publishing that information on the Internet. This will also help to limit the opportunity for the information to be misused. Death information is currently obtained by some non-Government organisations in order to remove the names of deceased individuals from databases and mailing lists—a practice that avoids the pain caused to family members if correspondence is sent to a deceased person—and clause 26 enables this practice to continue but only on strict terms relating to the way the information can be used and prohibiting publication of the information. The processes for supplying this information are similar to the Act’s current information-matching provisions applying to Government departments. 
Several of the bill’s provisions enhance the registrar-general’s ability to ensure that there are complete and accurate records in the event that they are registered under the Act. Clause 30 provides for the registrar-general to be able to obtain address information from the Ministry of Social Development to help to locate the mothers of children whose births remain unregistered after a lengthy amount of time. This clause also enables the registrar-general to share name change and death information with overseas counterparts. This will help reduce identity crimes by ensuring that birth records are notated with the fact of a name change or death that occurred in another country. Clause 35 provides that the Ministry of Health can give the registrar-general information about a birth or death that has not been registered or that has been registered incorrectly. 
This clause also enables the registrar-general to update records held under the Human Assisted Reproductive Technology Act by using information such as name change or death information held by other registers. This will help to ensure that donors and donor offspring can identify each other with the most up-to-date information. 
The bill amends the Act to give better recognition of de facto relationships. Clause 10 for example requires both parents to sign their child’s birth registration form regardless of their relationship status unless it would be impossible or inappropriate to require both parents to do so. This will help improve the accuracy of the information provided and will reduce claims that a person has been wrongly named as a parent. Enhancements are also made in the bill to improve the registrar-general’s ability to collect and disclose information by electronic means. 
This bill is relatively predictable but important. It covers a number of matters that will enhance the functions of the Births Deaths and Marriages registry. It will ensure that the registry continues to be the trusted custodian of the life event records held by it. I commend this bill to the House.