Dunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 15 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7296. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon PETER DUNNE (Minister of Internal Affairs): I move That the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) be now read a third time. This bill makes a number of important policy amendments to the Passports Act 1992. The most significant change and the one that has attracted the most public attention and been welcomed by all sides of this House is of course the increase in the adult passport validity period from 5 years to 10 years. That longer validity period will benefit adult New Zealand travellers who will need to renew their passports less often. Also the fee for one 10-year passport will be substantially less than the fee for two 5-year passports. This change alone has made the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) a very popular bill.I also believe that the increase in the validity period of the refugee travel document from 2 years to 5 years is a change that will benefit a small but important group of New Zealand residents and I am pleased that this change was also welcomed by other members of the House during earlier stages of the passage of this bill.This bill was introduced into the House on 15 June this year and was referred to the Government Administration Committee on 18 June. The committee reported back to the House on 24 August and the bill has proceeded swiftly through its remaining stages. The commencement clause in the bill which was amended by the committee brings the changes to the validity periods into effect on 30 November 2015. This is only a short time away and individuals will soon start to benefit from these changes.The members of this House who have contributed to debates on this bill including the members of the Government Administration Committee have quite rightly noted that the passport validity period was reduced to 5 years in 2005 for security reasons. I therefore want to reiterate that considerations around security were foremost in my mind before making the decision to increase the passport validity period. Security is also one of the reasons why I do not believe that the passport should have a longer period than 10 years which some submitters suggested to the Government Administration Committee. Ten years is the longest validity period recommended by the International Civil Aviation Organization and there is good reason why New Zealand should not stray from these internationally agreed guidelines.Security is also why I established an independent review of New Zealand’s passport security settings last year. I wanted to be reassured that possible additional security risks from a longer validity period will be appropriately managed. The review showed that New Zealand’s passport security features have improved immensely since the current 5-year validity period was introduced in 2005. Our current passport is respected as a technically sophisticated and secure document by experts based outside New Zealand. However security features will continue to be reviewed and the document will continue to be enhanced at appropriate points during the future. Security risks after all continue to change but these same risks are managed by many other countries and I have been assured by the Department of Internal Affairs that they can be managed by New Zealand.Some members have also raised a concern about changes in the bill that provide that passports do not need to be returned to the department in order to be cancelled when a replacement passport is applied for. It was suggested that this could lead to fraudulent activity through misuse of a seemingly unexpired passport. However this matter is addressed by some of the apparently more mundane and technical amendments in the bill which as others have noted brings the Passports Act into the digital age. These amendments reflect the fact that the management of travel documents is carried out electronically.So once a passport is cancelled on the New Zealand travel document database it cannot be used for travel from New Zealand as this information is shared with border authorities. This will help to provide more effective measures to prevent individuals from leaving the country when there are court orders or conditions that require them to remain in New Zealand—a point that does have some topicality. Additionally these amendments help prevent the fraudulent use of travel documents. For example if someone tries to use a cancelled passport to open a bank account or to support a financial transaction checks made with the Department of Internal Affairs through its identity confirmation service will now show that the passport is no longer valid.So to conclude I would like to acknowledge those individuals who took time to make submissions on the bill and also the members of the Government Administration Committee for their efforts in considering the bill in a very short period of time and for the decisions that they reached. The passing of this bill will make the Passports Act more fit for purpose in an age when individuals wish to travel frequently and easily and when travel through borders needs to be managed quickly and effectively. These changes will do so in a way that does not threaten the international reputation of our existing and trusted passport but that extends the convenience of its life to New Zealanders who enjoy the privilege of travelling. So I commend the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) to the House.