Fenton Darien: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Fenton Darien: Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:637;Page:7813] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am pleased to speak on the first reading of the Births Deaths Marriages and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill and I look forward to the Government Administration Committee of which I am a member considering the bill and reporting it back to the House in due course. 
Identity is an important issue for New Zealanders. It is about who we are and what we are and our histories and our families. Records of identity are important to us because they provide the basis for determining individual entitlements and help us trace our lineage and establish our identity. We want to know that identity information is being used responsibly that it is up to date that it is accessible and that it is accurate. We need trusted records that are up to date and modern. 
Sandra Goudie 
: What’s been the problem to date? There’s been no problem to date. What a load of rubbish. 
DARIEN FENTON 
: I listened to the member’s speech and I ask her to do me the courtesy of doing the same. In its statement of intent for 2006-09 the Department of Internal Affairs told the Government Administration Committee that it currently registers over 102000 births deaths and civil unions. It issues over 200000 birth death marriage and civil union certificates and printouts. That is a big job and we need up-to-date legislation to ensure that these records continue to be the best they can be. 
Many of us in this House have been involved in tracing our family history—even the member opposite I am sure. Sometimes that has surprising results and some of us discover family backgrounds we knew nothing about. I am sure we can all tell a story about a skeleton in our closet we did not know about or someone we recently found out we were related to. We may not have known about that person and we may not be so comfortable about it. Of course in New Zealand it is not hard to find lost relatives. At a 50th wedding anniversary over the weekend of a distant cousin on my Irish side I found hundreds of whanau I have never met before. I am sure they are all registered somewhere and it is very interesting. 
Some stories are really heartbreaking. For example we found out that my grandmother on my husband’s side had changed her name from Burkheimer to Burke during the First World War to hide her German ancestry because of the antagonism towards New Zealand citizens who could be identified as having German blood. Many of us will have dealt with Pacific Island citizens and citizens of other countries who have had terrible trouble accessing their records at home. Sometimes those records had been kept in one place and were blown away by a hurricane or destroyed in a civil war and so on. That means those people are not able to access simple things like pensions. 
It is amazing how those records have an impact on our personal decisions. When my son was born I was living in a de facto relationship with my partner John. We discovered when we went to register our son’s birth in Whangarei that because we were not married his birth certificate would record that he was illegitimate. That was not so long ago. Members know what it is like with children they grow up fast and my son is now 27 years old. We were shocked that that societal judgment would continue forever more on our son’s record. We decided to get married because we could not predict how such a thing would be viewed by future generations. We got married at the Whangarei registry office when my boy was just 6 weeks old and he had what was then the fairly unusual experience of attending his parents’ own wedding. He was not a witness of course; he was too young. 
Of course if I could have looked forward to the 21st century I would see that the word “illegitimate” would become obsolete that we could enter into a civil union rather than a marriage and that society would judge neither us nor our son. In fact if I could have looked forward to this Labour-led Government I would be able to see that life would be very very different. However let me put on record that my marriage has lasted 27 years and my son has grown into an intelligent hard-working citizen with a strong social conscience so I have no regrets. May I add he earns more than his mother so he is making his contribution. 
Another issue that many of us have become aware of recently is the increasing use of identity fraud or identify theft. This makes it even more essential that we have up-to-date relevant and modern systems of information collection. At the moment any member of the public can obtain the registered information of almost anyone else and that is not acceptable. Even in New Zealand we have heard the sad stories of the names of babies being collected from gravestones and used for identity fraud. Our identity and personal information are valuable. Criminals can find out our personal details and use them for their own ends to open bank accounts and to get credit cards loans State benefits and documents such as passports and drivers’ licences in our name. 
In the United States and Canada for example many people have reported that unauthorised persons have taken funds out of their bank or financial accounts or in the worst cases have taken over their identities altogether. Can members imagine someone else pretending they were them running up vast debts and committing crimes while using their names. In many cases victims’ losses may include not only out-of-pocket financial losses but substantial additional financial costs associated with trying to restore their reputation in the community and correcting erroneous information for which the criminal is responsible—for example never being able to access a loan again. 
In one notorious case of identity theft the criminal—a convicted felon—not only incurred more than $100000 of credit card debt but also obtained a federal home loan and bought homes motorcycles and handguns in the victim’s name. He also called his victim to taunt him saying he could continue to pose as the victim for as long as he wanted because identity theft was not a federal crime at that time before filing for bankruptcy also in the victim’s name. While the victim and his wife spent more than 4 years and more than $15000 of their own money to restore their credit and reputation the criminal served a brief sentence for making a false statement to procure a firearm but made no restitution to his victim for any of the harm he had caused. We want to avoid that as much as we can in New Zealand. We have not seen this on any great scale; let us not go there. 
This legislation introduces measures to protect individual privacy and reduce the likelihood of identity fraud. It amends the Births Deaths and Marriages Registration Act 1995 and proposes changes especially concerning public access to the births deaths and marriages registry information. This means that people will be able to access only their own records or those of their immediate family or those of other people only with their consent. It will be an offence to try to obtain information by falsely claiming to be authorised to access a person’s record. The new access provision will preserve open access to historical information and any restriction on records will not apply to those over 100 years old. 
Changes in new technology provide us with many opportunities and this bill reflects this by enabling the registrar-general to provide Internet access to historical records. This will make it easier for those on a quest for family information but the graduated approach to death records recognises that some sensitive information such as that of a spouse or partner who may still be alive or the cause of death may be sensitive for family members. 
I am particularly pleased given my experiences that I have related to this House as a young mother that the bill removes discrimination against people in de facto relationships and includes a provision that requires both parents to sign the child’s birth registration form regardless of the relationship. 
The bill is technical but important. It reflects the privacy and security needs of the 21st century. We have made significant security enhancements to the New Zealand passport and citizen application processes and this bill builds on that. I look forward to receiving submissions in select committee and working with the other members—including the member opposite—on the Government Administration Committee to return this bill to the House for its second reading.