Faafoi Kris: Electronic Identity Verification Bill — First Reading 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Faafoi Kris: Electronic Identity Verification Bill — First Reading 
[Sitting date: 07 February 2012. Volume:677;Page:151. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
KRIS FAAFOI (Labour—Mana) 
: 
 Thank you for the opportunity to speak on this Electronic Identity Verification Bill. Can I begin in the fashion that many others have tonight and congratulate you Mr Assistant Speaker on again being chosen for your office of Parliament and I also congratulate the Hon Amy Adams the new Minister concerned with this Electronic Identity Verification Bill a bill that Labour supports being referred to a select committee.  
This really is a bill that shows the sign of the times at the moment. The regulatory impact statement that comes with this bill shows that 2 years ago in 2009 of those internet users in New Zealand 46 percent had sought information about Government agencies online 35 percent had downloaded or completed a Government form online and 20 percent had made payments to the Government online. That was a couple of years ago so I am sure that those numbers will have advanced somewhat in that time and it just shows that a number of New Zealanders are now looking online to do their business with the Government. To make it as hassle-free and streamlined as possible not just for those who are the end-users but also for the Government departments involved we think is a very good thing. It is going to be very useful both for Kiwis and Government departments in the age of doing business online.  
Many of us have dealt with constituents who have found it frustrating at times when dealing with Government agencies having to provide the same amount of information or varying amounts of information to certify or verify that they are who they are. I think the previous speaker Jonathan Young was talking just a few minutes ago about the hundreds of thousands of cases of identity fraud involving people dealing online. I think it may have been in relation to Government departments but if not certainly that is still a lot of people who have encountered identity fraud of some description when they have been using the internet.  
I think the real benefits of this will be with real Kiwis the end-users who will now no longer have to as I said before provide various forms of identification to the I think it is 28 Government departments that are using the igovt database at the moment. I know from my own personal experience of being overseas and having to send information back to New Zealand to Government departments that it was frustrating to have to deal with different Government departments and their different systems of operating so if we can have definitely one system through which people can deal with a plurality of Government departments that will be good.  
Of course it will save a fair amount of queuing for people out there who deal with Government departments and it will make sure that those Government agencies that are already using the igovt service can push this out further to make sure we can find efficiencies. That is what we really do want: efficiencies both for the public and for the Government departments especially in these very difficult times. There will be things that we will be watching very closely though. Of course around security there must be absolute confidence among the public that this service or database will be secure. I notice that there are some serious parts of this bill around punishment for any offences that may be caused. I think it is a sentence of no less than 10 years and a $250000 fine for anyone who is caught misusing the information so we think that is a good move in this bill.  
Ruth Dyson also made the point earlier that we want to make sure that Kiwis still do have the avenue to have some face-to-face contact if they either do not have the confidence to use the internet the confidence in the system or the use of the internet readily available for them. So we do want to make sure that this is not moving towards the internet or online being the only option for people to interact with their Government departments. We still want to make sure that there is a friendly face behind the counter for when people are interacting with agencies such as Work and Income the Housing New Zealand Corporation and other agencies that are involved in the system.  
Ruth Dyson also pointed out that New Zealand Post will be the lead agency for collecting information and for taking photos I understand for this legislation. We know that one move by New Zealand Post at the moment is to downsize its outlets and to reduce the number of outlets. So we hope that there is going to be the appropriate amount of resourcing in our New Zealand Post stores to make sure that these stores which I think are pretty much already run off their feet have the ability to service the people who are coming into those stores to make sure that they can get that work done. And a point also made by Ruth Dyson is that some security around the future of New Zealand Post especially at the time the current Government is looking at asset sales would be beneficial for all New Zealanders. But in terms of making sure they are streamlining services we do welcome the moves that are being made to help our Government departments making sure that we have efficiencies within them and making sure those people who are supposed to be serving the public have more time to be able to meet their duties to the public when they are coming to them.  
Again public confidence in the system is going to be paramount and we do note that there are safeguards within this legislation for wrongful sharing of information especially at a time when you know internet safety and internet piracy are in the headlines. We want to make sure that the security around the system is 100 percent.  
Also noted has been the involvement of the Privacy Commissioner. That is also a welcome move in this legislation to make sure that they can request the chief executive of the Department of Internal Affairs for a report if there are any concerns around privacy and the security of the information that is being held on the database. We are talking about very sensitive information—family information—that is being held on these databases and for it to get into the hands of the wrong agencies or to be misused by a staff member in an agency would be a tragedy. We do support this legislation through to select committee consideration. It has been a piece of work that has been a long time coming but we do welcome it and we will support its referral to a select committee.