Logie Jan: Electronic Identity Verification Bill — Second Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Logie Jan: Electronic Identity Verification Bill — Second Reading 
[Sitting date: 29 August 2012. Volume:683;Page:4972. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
JAN LOGIE (Green) 
: 
 I am going to take just a short call on this bill and again reinforce the Green Party’s support for the Electronic Identity Verification Bill. I echo my colleague Gareth Hughes’ comments in terms of how constructive I hear the process has been. You know I will just enjoy for a moment that sense of unanimity and agreement in the House. 
Mike Sabin 
: Bring it in! 
JAN LOGIE 
: Feeling the love. It does not happen that often and it is good to work constructively together whenever there is a chance. 
We are supporting this bill for many reasons and we are very keen on the improvements that have happened in the select committee process. As somebody who hears many stories from people about going into Work and Income offices and the dramas around presentation of materials and the need to verify and have the right paperwork I say that I am a fan of anything that reduces that demand for paperwork. I really hope that that will relieve some of the pressure and the need for return visits for many beneficiaries while obviously acknowledging that quite a few of them will not have access to the internet so will not have access to this service. 
I would also just like to highlight something that probably is not at the top of most people’s minds but that I think also is a real benefit of this and that is that it will provide a potential bonus for transgender people. This will give them the ability to have the passport which has a lower threshold for gender identification as their form of identity. That will go across all departments and will relieve them of that quite traumatic experience of having to deal with departments that may demand a birth certificate which has an unacceptably high threshold for defining gender. So this is a really positive initiative for trans people in New Zealand. On that level alone I am really supportive of this bill. 
Just to reiterate the changes inherent in it increasing fines for illegally accessing and using the information to $1 million for companies is a good thing. To require a search warrant for the access of information is a good thing. Although we would have preferred the hard limit in terms of the time the information is kept when somebody cancels their account for example we will accept it going to the Minister and being decided by regulation. 
We also are happy about the increased role for the Privacy Commissioner. But I will definitely note my concern about the pressure on the Privacy Commissioner that we are seeing in the number of bills coming to this House that are requiring an increased oversight by the Privacy Commissioner without the corresponding increased support for that very very critical role. I would urge the Government to look at that carefully because if we are going to put so much responsibility in the hands of the Privacy Commissioner we need to resource that because privacy is critical. 
Also I reinforce that final message about this being an option and it is a really positive option. It is not something to transplant the face-to-face interactions or to push everyone online when we know that not everyone can get online. With all those comments the Green Party will be supporting the bill. 
Bill read a second time.