Collins Judith: Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Collins Judith: Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15099] 
JUDITH COLLINS (National—Clevedon) 
: 
 It is my privilege again to speak on the Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill—in particular on Part 2 and amendments to other Acts. Of course this really deals with the fact that other Acts including the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act are to be amended and also that the supply of arrival and departure information for benefit purposes is to be disclosed. We have had a very reasoned debate so far in the Committee tonight about the need for this and I think that we have unanimously decided that it is good legislation to have. 
I will address a few of the issues about the amendments to other Acts in Part 2 and why it is that obviously it is now a lot easier to transfer information between various departments and to collate it. I remind the Committee that is was not too long ago that we did not have mobile phones. When I first started practising law I remember when we got our first fax machine and we thought that was really exciting. And I am not that old at all even though I may occasionally look like it. 
Hon Ruth Dyson 
: I did not say anything— 
JUDITH COLLINS 
: The Minister is very kind. Of course she would not; I would look so young compared with her. It is not that long ago when we got our first laptop computers and it is not that long ago that we actually got computers in Government departments where front-line staff could access information from them. So it is really very important that we constantly keep up with new technology. 
Today when we heard from the chief executive of the Ministry of Social Development about the Patterson $3.2 million fraud one of the things he pointed out was the fact that it has been only in the last couple of years that the register of births has been computerised. That is because basically it has been a manual system ever since it has been kept. But the technology now exists so that this can be computerised and matching has become available. When the Department of Internal Affairs some years ago updated its passport system it went on to a computerised system and I remember it was back in the 1990s that that happened. 
Of course we have changing technology and this changing technology gives us all sorts of opportunities to detect and deal with fraud and with identity fraud. It is also interesting to note that none of these instances we heard about today—which as I recall were about 124 different aliases—involved identity theft. Not one of them involved instances of this man Patterson going and looking in graveyards for the names of dead babies and stealing their identities which are some of the instances we have heard of before in the last few years. So not only is technology moving on but so are the fraudsters. We will not just be able to pass this legislation and think “Well that will be it; we don’t need to do any more.” We will have to come back to this as technology changes. Just because we cannot anticipate now what that technology or its changes will be it does not mean to say that they will not happen. 
So I think that it is incredibly important when we look for instance at the supply of arrival and departure information for benefit purposes in Part 2 and at other amendments to Acts—those to the Customs and Excise Act for instance—that we consider the fact that some people will set about making up their minds to cheat the benefit system and to cheat the taxpayer. Those people are often extremely capable people. Certainly Patterson showed himself to be extraordinarily capable in terms of technology and the use of it—so much so that the chief executive of the ministry has even written to Mr Patterson and suggested that the ministry can assist him to go straight after he comes out of prison. A letter on that matter was tabled today at the select committee and I find that quite extraordinary. But of course this is a person with such talents and it is amazing to think they have been misused in this way. 
Certainly when I was growing up we did not have the Internet. Many of us with children will say that if we have any new technology we get the kids to sort it out first and then they can give us the dummies’ guide on how to operate it. I can see there is quite a bit of nodding around the Chamber. Some of us do not need to learn about it because our children will do it for us we think but actually we should do it. We should embrace it and go with it. Unfortunately this is what will happen—or we should say fortunately.