Guy Nathan: Identity Information Confirmation Bill — In Committee 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Guy Nathan: Identity Information Confirmation Bill — In Committee 
[Sitting date: 13 November 2012. Volume:685;Page:6562. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister of Immigration) 
: 
 I wish to take a call on Part 2 of the Identity Information Confirmation Bill. It is interesting listening to the debate in the Committee tonight. I would like to make a few comments. First of all I think it is important to realise that Part 2 is a very important part. I acknowledge the contribution that the chair of the Government Administration Committee the Hon Ruth Dyson made before. I acknowledge that the select committee did a lot of work on this bill and I thank it on behalf of the Minister of Internal Affairs for that. Importantly Part 2— 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Who introduced the bill? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: I did introduce the bill. 
Hon Trevor Mallard 
: Very poorly drafted. Not the member’s best work. 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: I acknowledge Mr Mallard the good work of the select committee and the bill that we now have in front of us. 
Importantly Part 2 looks at the provisions relating to the confirmation service and miscellaneous matters—and I will come to Jan Logie’s Supplementary Order Paper 148 in a moment. It also talks about how to use the confirmation service in clause 9. It talks about the parties to the confirmation agreement in clause 10; that is an important part. It also talks about in clause 11 the general requirements for the form and content of the confirmation agreement and it follows right through to the terms and conditions of that agreement and importantly under clauses 13 and 14 the safeguards that the Privacy Commissioner has over this particular piece of legislation. 
If I refer now to the member’s Supplementary Order Paper—Jan Logie’s one which is Supplementary Order Paper 148—I think it is first of all worthwhile mentioning that there are legitimate reasons why employers may need to confirm the identity information of a potential employee. There are no current provisions as I understand it in the Citizenship Act 1977 or the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Act 1995 for the employer to verify the citizenship status of potential employees. This bill allows employers to verify that a potential employee is a New Zealand citizen. That is an important part of this bill and to read Supplementary Order Paper 148 from Jan Logie and to hear her comments that this part opens up a system to provide pressure on the employee I do not agree. I also do not agree with her comments that it is going to trigger discrimination because ultimately the individual has to consent. If I can find that part to try to reassure the member it is covered under clause 8(1)(a): “the individual has consented (in written or electronic form) to the check before it is carried out ...”— 
Denis O’Rourke 
: What about pressure to consent? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: —and it goes on to I believe clarify that the individual will not be pressured because they have to consent to it. 
So the Government does not support the Greens’ Supplementary Order Paper 148 because that is an important part that is included in the bill to allow the employer to clarify the status of the employee.