Dunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second ReadingText is subject to correctionDunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Second Reading[Sitting date: 08 September 2015. Volume:708;Page:1. Text is subject to correction.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Internal Affairs):I move That the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a second time. I am very pleased to do so so soon after the bill was introduced to the House in June. Immediately I want to thank the members of the Government Administration Committee for their efforts in considering the bill over a very short period of time—in fact the bill was referred to that committee on 18 June this year and reported back to the House on 24 August. The committee received 20 written submissions on the bill. The Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) is largely a technical bill that makes a relatively small number of amendments to the Passports Act 1992. The main change of course is in the key area of the adult passport validity period which the bill increases from 5 years to 10 years. Not surprisingly virtually all submitters supported this change.The select committee’s report contains one amendment which is to bring forward the date of the commencement of the bill from 31 December 2015 to 30 November 2015. I fully support this change. This will mean that the Department of Internal Affairs will be able to begin issuing adult passports with a 10-year validity period in time for the Christmas holiday season later this year a move that will benefit many thousands of New Zealanders. Bringing forward the commencement date will also benefit a number of refugees because the validity of the refugee travel document is being increased from 2 years to 5 years. That means that the validity period will in most instances be long enough to ensure that a refugee needs only one refugee travel document before they are eligible to apply for New Zealand citizenship and subsequently become eligible for a New Zealand passport. Currently refugees may need to apply for up to three refugee travel documents before they can apply for New Zealand citizenship.The changes in the validity periods of travel documents are the amendments in the bill that attracted the most public attention. The majority of the amendments that the bill contains are of a technical nature and are designed to modernise the Passports Act 1992. They do this by updating a number of sections of the Act to take into account the use of an electronic database to manage the issuance recall and/or cancellation of travel documents. I understand that this development was also commented on by one submitter to the committee. That submitter noted that I as Minister of Internal Affairs have had longstanding powers to recall and/or cancel passports under the Passports Act 1992 and that these clauses in this bill simply move the provisions of the Passports Act into the digital age.There are several other amendments contained in the bill all designed to increase transparency and clarify powers contained in the principal Act. These include the replacement of section 40 of the current Act which provides for powers to make regulations to set fees. Section 40 is being updated to remove redundant provisions and to clarify the range of services that fees may be set for. The new section 40 which is introduced by clause 34 of the bill clarifies that fees may be set on a differential basis including depending on where an application is lodged—whether it is lodged in New Zealand or overseas—and the way it is lodged; for example whether it is lodged electronically or in paper form. A different fee may also be set if the applicant is under the age of 16 years. This does not change the current practice because different levels of fees apply already to passport applications that are processed in London and Sydney where staff and building costs are substantially higher than in New Zealand. The committee has not recommended any other change of approach within the bill.There is a further small technical change to the bill that I propose to make. In reviewing the bill parliamentary counsel identified a change that was needed to the numbering of the schedules in the Act because the bill introduces an additional schedule. I will therefore be moving a highly controversial Supplementary Order Paper at the Committee stage to renumber the current schedule in the Passports Act to schedule 2. A new schedule 1 is introduced by the bill and sets out a savings provision in relation to any New Zealand travel document that is issued or renewed before the commencement date of the bill. That is really all I need to say at this stage with regard to this legislation. It has been well-considered and efficiently considered by the select committee and it is with a great deal of pleasure that I now commend the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) to the House.