Williams PotoPOTO WILLIAMS (Labour—Christchurch East): Last Thursday Rape Prevention Education and the Wellington Women's Refuge had a small but very vocal rally out on the steps of Parliament. The women gathered there—and some men gathered there—because they were protesting the Ministry of Social Development's desire to collect not just data but very personal information from clients of the sexual and family violence services. They argued that the collection of this data—this very personalised individual data—actually runs the risk of clients not wanting to attend services if that data may have the opportunity to be disclosed.The Ministry of Social Development argues that good information leads to effective services for clients. But the argument that Rape Prevention Education and the Wellington Women's Refuge made was why does that data need to be disaggregated? Why does that data need to be personalised to show that a service is effective? When I attended a meeting in Timaru a couple of weeks ago the Timaru Budget Advisory Service argued the same. It says that the people that attend services have very very sensitive information and they do not want to disclose that. The Government said that effective services—Hon Jo Goodhew: They're not being asked to disclose that. They're only giving the same information you'd give to your school.POTO WILLIAMS: —and programmes are due to data and data collection. The Government services say that services—Hon Jo Goodhew: Don't worry about giving it to the school.POTO WILLIAMS: —are duplicated and ineffective. However they have not been able to demonstrate that. If the member Jo Goodhew would like to actually take a call she can actually get up and refute this. The community sector has said that it is prepared to hand over information if the Government can actually prove that this is actually going to be effective. The new data-collection system and many of the services that the Government is promoting are based on information it collects itself—not peer reviewed not academically sound not robust data—and yet Government programmes are provided on this basis. I see the Government has now gone quiet because that is absolutely the truth.When you look at the information that is collected by the Ministry of Social Development on clients that it does not even fund—what is the point of that? What is the point of that? What is the point of collecting very personal information—because then what do you do with that? What you do is you track somebody through the Ministry of Social Development's system.Hon Jo Goodhew: You can't do that.Mr SPEAKER: Order!POTO WILLIAMS: The Minister is saying that you cannot do that. However what the Minister does know is that information is already collected on people who access services not just by the Ministry of Social Development but the Inland Revenue Department and that information is linked. The ministry would have you believe that that information is then anonymized. Well how then are we able to track people through the services if it is then anonymized? I will go and access another service and that piece of information will be added to the information already collected about me—that information will be added to the information already collected about me. So it is not cleaned and it is not anonymized; it is actually still live data attached to me as an individual. Not only that but the Government also collects information about my children and my dependents.There is an issue with this and it is called the Privacy Act and the codes that sit within the Privacy Act. One of the principles of that code is that I am aware of the information that is collected about me I am aware of the purpose that that information is going to be used for and I fully give consent for that. But there is also another principle that the information is collected from me directly as an individual unless I give permission for someone else to pass that information on.This is the sticking point that the Government now finds itself in because there will be people who will say: I do not give permission for my information to be passed on to the Ministry of Social Development." The community sector needs to be celebrated for the work that it does supporting the people of this country—to keep them safe to keep our kids in sport—and this Government is looking to undermine its effectiveness in our community and I for one will not stand for it."