Dunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDunne Peter: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — First Reading[Sitting date: 18 June 2015. Volume:706;Page:4571. 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 first time. At the appropriate moment I intend to move that the bill be referred to the Government Administration Committee for consideration and that the committee report finally to the House on or before 30 October 2015. This is a concise but important bill that will ultimately help many New Zealand citizens. It contains measures that are designed to make passport services more convenient for travellers and it modernises the Passports Act 1992 to reflect the increasingly electronic nature of passport services.The main feature of this bill is that it increases the validity period of the adult New Zealand passport to 10 years. This addresses a common concern raised about the current validity period of the New Zealand passport in that when matched by passports issued by comparable countries our passport is valid for a shorter period. This was an issue considered carefully by the Government Administration Committee last year before it recommended a review of the passport validity period. New Zealanders are well known for their love of travel and being as geographically isolated as we are the passport is an essential document for many people for both business and holiday purposes. It is simply inconvenient having to renew a passport more frequently than in many other countries.The validity period was originally reduced from 10 years to 5 years in 2005 against a background of security concerns at that time. The New Zealand passport was not considered then to be a sufficiently secure document so in order to reduce its attractiveness to counterfeiters there was a need to ensure that the passport was in circulation for a limited time and that its security features were improved. Reducing the validity period addressed some of those risks and the launch of the e-passport which introduced an electronic chip containing biometric information about the passport holder enhanced the passport’s security.Since 2005 there has been significant investment in passport security both for the security of the book itself and of the issuing processes. The book has been updated a number of times and now contains many effective security features alongside the biometric chip. Other countries have updated the security in their passports in recent years and have also been confident enough to increase the validity periods of their passports to provide greater convenience to travellers. I believe New Zealand should now do the same.We have a passport that is considered to be amongst the best in the world. However security challenges still exist. The international security situation is constantly changing and remains volatile. Therefore in considering a change to the passport validity period the Government has sought to ensure that passport security would not be compromised. That is why in August last year I announced an independent review of New Zealand’s passport security settings. That review and subsequent work has carefully considered the relevant issues and involved the border and law enforcement agencies in that process. We are now confident that the security risks involved in moving to a longer validity period can be mitigated.This change to the passport validity period applies only to adult passports which are issued to individuals who are at least 16 years of age. Children’s passports will still have a 5-year validity period in line with international convention which recognises that younger people’s appearances change more quickly.In addition to changing the maximum validity period for adult passports the bill will also change the validity periods of other travel documents. This includes extending the validity period of refugee travel documents from 2 years to 5 years. That brings them in line with the length of the residency period required before refugees can apply for New Zealand citizenship and obtain a New Zealand passport.The bill reduces the maximum validity period of certificates of identity from 4 years to 2 years. These travel documents are issued only to non-New Zealand citizens who cannot get travel documents from their own countries. As we may not have full access to these individuals’ identity information the majority of certificates of identity are issued for 1 year only so it is therefore appropriate to amend the Act to reflect this reality and the greater security concerns around those travel documents.In addition to changing the validity period of travel documents other changes in this bill are designed to ensure that New Zealand’s passport services are supported by up-to-date legislation. The bill does this by removing outdated provisions that are inconsistent with modern security and operational practice. For security reasons passports and other travel documents that expire or need to be changed because their visa pages are full are now replaced by completely new documents. The original documents are not amended in any way. Therefore the current provisions in the Act which enable the expiry dates of passports to be extended and additional visa pages to be inserted are redundant and are being removed.In a similar vein the bill also removes references in the Passports Act to the reissuing of travel documents. This change reflects the fact that new travel documents with updated identity details for the document holder replace any previous document. The bill also provides clear legislative authority for best practice document security. For instance clauses in the bill authorise the permanent invalidation of passports and other travel documents that have been reported lost or stolen and this helps prevent the use of such passports for criminal purposes.Other clauses refine provisions in the Act that already enable the recall and cancellation of passports for specified reasons. These amendments in the bill provide for the travel document database to be flagged when passports have been recalled or cancelled. This information is then shared with border control agencies quickly under existing arrangements.Finally the bill gives extraterritorial application to the offence of false representation. This change aims to reduce the risk of the online passport application service being misused by individuals who are based overseas or who apply to the Department of Internal Affairs’ London or Sydney offices with false information.To conclude I believe it is important that the operational practices of this world-class Government service are supported by modern legislation. The majority of the amendments in the bill are of a relatively minor and technical nature or they simply update the Act to reflect computerised processes. In that respect the bill will ensure that the passport service continues to operate effectively to help New Zealand citizens living all over the world and that appropriate safeguards preventing the misuse of the service are put in place and maintained.Importantly the bill will ensure that New Zealanders will benefit from the convenience of a longer passport validity period. I believe that the House should therefore get this bill moving through the select committee process and enacted as soon as possible and it is with considerable pleasure that I now commend the bill to the House.