Rurawhe Adrian: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeRurawhe Adrian: Passports Amendment Bill (No 2) — Third Reading[Sitting date: 15 October 2015. Volume:709;Page:7297. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]ADRIAN RURAWHE (Labour—Te Tai Hauāuru): Tēnā koe Mr Deputy Speaker. It is a pleasure for me also to stand in support of the Passports Amendment Bill (No 2). I want to start off as well by acknowledging the Government Administration Committee and the work that we did on this piece of legislation. As the Minister of Internal Affairs said it is a very popular bill and we were abundantly aware as a committee that it would be a good idea to get this bill through its different stages of the parliamentary process so that New Zealanders could apply for a new 10-year passport before the end of the year. I think it is a really great thing that we have come to this day in October in well enough time for that to happen. I want to acknowledge the Minister as well for getting this bill into the House.I also acknowledge my own team my Labour colleagues—in particular the Hon Phil Goff and the Hon Trevor Mallard who led a campaign to see the validity of passports change from 5 years to 10 years. Indeed that was Labour Party policy at the last election so we are very pleased to support that particular change. As I said that is a very popular thing to do but there are some technical things within the bill as well. They were widely canvassed within the process through from first reading and in particular at the select committee stage and the Minister has already spoken about the reasons why.I would summarise all of those changes under the heading of “latest technology that allows that to happen”. So the reason for changing the validity to 5 years of course was the issues around security after 9/11. It was deemed that it would be best to have a 5-year period and now that is brought back up to 10. In respect of the technology changes I am no IT expert but I certainly understand how these provisions can now be given effect to—for example the electronic cancellation of travel documents without having the actual documents. That is now able to be done under this legislation. This bill also authorises the Minister to be able to put an electronic record against those travel documents. That is now available to the Minister through this piece of legislation.The Minister talked about the cost of applying for a new passport. The cost will be set as I understand it at $180. Currently it is $135 for 5 years. That is a significantly different pricing regime over the 10-year period. I am aware that the actual cost though of processing applications and issuing a new passport is actually $400—a $220 difference. I want to talk a little bit about that because we will get to the stage where it is no longer sustainable at that level and then the Government at that time will need to make a decision around the actual cost. What I am really saying is that this is a short-term pricing regime unless there is money set aside in the future to sustain this level. So it is $180 for now but of course we do not know what the future price of that is going to be.I would advocate that having a passport is not only about travel but also about appropriate identification. Some organisations and some agencies require a passport as identification so having a passport is also of community benefit. So I would advocate that and I congratulate the Minister on convincing Cabinet to set the price at $180 rather than the actual cost of $400. That will as I said become an issue further on into the future.As I said the overall effect of these three things—the security issues the pricing and the period of validity—are all the things that I think everyday ordinary Kiwis will be happy to have as part of their application for a passport and for obtaining a passport. A lot of New Zealanders—and indeed I myself—consider that it is a real privilege to be carrying a New Zealand passport into other countries to identify themselves as being New Zealanders. I want to again acknowledge the Minister for his work on this bill and I commend this bill to the House. Thank you.