Robertson Grant; Tisch LindsayGRANT ROBERTSON (Labour—Wellington Central): Where you find incompetence arrogance and ideology meeting you will find this National Government. That is what we have learnt from the Privacy Commissioner's report today. This is a shambles. The Privacy Commissioner an officer of this country's people has made a report—and I do not think I have ever seen one more damning from that office. For the Government and Alfred Ngaro to stand up and say You can't say this report shows we're out of touch."—that is just what it shows Mr Ngaro.Community organisations right around New Zealand have been raising concerns about the individual client - level data collection from day one and no Minister—no member of that Government—has been prepared to actually listen to that. Instead they barge on with their ideological approach to social investment which I will return to shortly and nothing can stop that because it is all they have got. It is all they have got after 9 years of social problems growing around them. All they have got is this approach. Anne Tolley says: "It is growing. All I've got is this and I have to carry on no matter what the damage is that I'm doing."It is very important for people listening to understand exactly what we are talking about today. The individual client - level data approach makes the provision of personal identifiable client data a requirement for receiving Government funding for these organisations and there is no ability to opt out. Just think about that. The names the addresses and the contact details of vulnerable people and their children are being collected and there is no ability for a community organisation to say: "That's not appropriate for us." So Alfred Ngaro says: "There's 100-odd organisations that have signed up to that." They had to—they had to do it. What kind of control-freak Government are we dealing with here that says—Hon Ruth Dyson: A nanny State—a police State.GRANT ROBERTSON: Yes exactly. It used to complain about a nanny State. This Government has caused the Privacy Commissioner to issue the most damning report I have ever seen his office issue because this Government is perpetuating on these organisations some of the most damaging actions that they need to take to get funding and that is a disgrace.I want to be absolutely clear too about what the Privacy Commissioner has said. The Privacy Commissioner has said that his view is that requiring the information to be collected in this way is excessive disproportionate to the Government's legitimate needs and is therefore inconsistent with information privacy principles. That is it. It is fundamental. The programme is out of control in terms of the basic values around privacy that New Zealanders hold dear. The Privacy Commissioner goes on: "As the policy currently stands individual clients are required to share their … information." There will be negative consequences. Individuals may choose to stay away from seeking help at all. Alfred Ngaro and the Minister have both said: "Oh that's just people's fears. That's not real." It is real. My colleague Stuart Nash has got just one example of how real this is. An organisation based in Napier called DOVE delivers a number of programmes aimed at giving perpetrators of domestic violence strategies to modify their behaviour. Some of these people are referred by the courts but others self-diagnose and undertake the programmes because they want to improve themselves. DOVE's management has told Mr Nash that it believes the Ministry of Social Development's (MSD's) new policy requiring them to disclose clients' details will dissuade a number of clients from accessing its services. This is an organisation doing exactly the work we want to see done and it is telling the Government that the people who would come to it will be dissuaded. The Privacy Commissioner is telling the Government that people will be dissuaded from getting the services that they need. And Alfred Ngaro says it is listening. It is not listening. It is refusing to listen to the very organisations like DOVE in Napier that are trying to do the right thing by New Zealanders. That is arrogance. That is incompetence from the Government and unfortunately it is what we have come to expect from this Government.The Privacy Commissioner went on to say that one of his fears is that people will actually become more invisible to the Government as a result of this rather than more included because people will avoid having their names collected or organisations will find ways of making sure that they do not collect the data. So people become more invisible. It is perverse. It goes against the outcomes that the Minister and Alfred Ngaro have told us today they believe are important.I want to talk briefly about the Minister's response today around the question of the security of data and the portal that the MSD has. It is ridiculous for the Minister to stand up today and try to claim the moral high ground—that she shut the portal down once she found a breach. Where was the work before the portal was set up to ensure that it met the rules that the Privacy Commissioner himself set down for the Government? It did not test it. It stuck it up there. Unbelievably organisations have been asked by MSD to provide the information on a spreadsheet. Get a bit of Excel out send it in to the Government. That is not going to be secure. Anybody could tell you that but the Government forged ahead because the Government has got nothing else on the go. It is all about this approach; this is the only way that it thinks it can get it through.Any New Zealander who has been following the news in the last couple of years knows that this Government's record around privacy is appalling. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner received 121 data breach notifications in the past financial year. Judith Collins a few years ago actually said "We need to do something about this." but Amy Adams most recently has told us that the laws are robust and no changes are needed. Think about the breaches that we have had just in the last couple of years: MSD—multiple breaches—ACC the Earthquake Commission Housing New Zealand the Medical Council of New Zealand Immigration New Zealand the Ministry of Justice and the Southern District Health Board. These are all public agencies with significant data security problems. This Government has a problem when it comes to protecting the privacy of New Zealanders and it is in denial. It is refusing to acknowledge that.That portal has been shut down after the fact. The Minister cannot guarantee New Zealanders today that that information which has been brought in from all of these agencies can be protected. She said she does not trust it and neither should New Zealanders. Well that is the situation the Minister is in having already implemented the programme. That is a disgraceful way to go about this kind of work.The Privacy Commissioner has an excellent section on page 37 of the report entitled "How could MSD have done better?" I want to quote from it: "For a policy of this size and significance I would have expected MSD to take a precautionary approach clearly identifying its purposes considering the full range of options to achieve these purposes". It did not do it. For something as fundamental as capturing the names and addresses and the personal data of people it failed to take that precautionary approach.The Privacy Commissioner goes on: "MSD has not clearly articulated its objectives for collecting [the data] … Nor has it explained how the data it receives … will achieve its aims … This failure has negatively impacted on the trust and confidence of NGOs and the people who will be affected by the policy." It is an absolute failure. It is a failure for the most vulnerable in New Zealand who need these services. The agencies who work for the Government have told it they will not access services under these circumstances but it does not listen. It is out of touch it is arrogant and it is in this case totally incompetent.The Privacy Commissioner goes on: "I would also have expected MSD to identify and mitigate risks early on including by undertaking a thorough privacy impact assessment prior to implementing contractual changes and information collection processes. It is disappointing that a privacy impact assessment still has not been completed (as at 4 April 2017)". Alfred Ngaro stood up and told us that the Privacy Commissioner has been involved all the way through. He has been calling for a privacy impact assessment and the Government has not done it and as at 4 April it still has not done it.Every member of this House wants to make sure that the most vulnerable New Zealanders get the protection and the support that they need. In order to do that we need a Government that is sensitive to the privacy needs of those people and that is competent in what it does in going about its work. This report today is evidence that it has completely failed those vulnerable New Zealanders. It has been incompetent it has been arrogant and it has been driven by ideology. That is why this Government has got to go.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): I call Marama Fox—5 minutes."