Fenton Darien: Electronic Identity Verification Bill Identity Information Confirmation Bill — Third Readings 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
Fenton Darien: Electronic Identity Verification Bill Identity Information Confirmation Bill — Third Readings 
[Sitting date: 11 December 2012. Volume:686;Page:7399. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DARIEN FENTON (Labour) 
: 
 I am taking a call on the Electronic Identity Verification Bill and the Identity Information Confirmation Bill which are cognate bills. It is fair to say that the Electronic Identity Verification Bill has had a much smoother ride than the other bill the Identity Information Confirmation Bill. I put a lot of that down to my colleague Ruth Dyson and her excellent chairing of the Government Administration Committee. If you look back at the Identity Information Confirmation Bill it dates right back to 2010 and the very unfortunate timing of its introduction I think as my colleagues have referred to. I think it was very embarrassing for the Government actually to have to debate the first reading of that bill not long after David Garrett was exposed for actually stealing someone’s identity—in fact a dead baby’s identity. So it is a little bit ironic to be debating this bill tonight. I cannot help but refer back to that time and also to the fact that we have had so many breaches by this Government—so many breaches by this Government. Again my colleagues have listed them and the numbers are really mounting now are they not of those breaches across Government departments: ACC which was a massive breach; Work and Income; the Inland Revenue Department; and Immigration New Zealand. 
We are just starting to get to the tip of the iceberg on Immigration New Zealand and it is worth pointing out that the privacy breaches that are being identified are starting to come out. Immigration New Zealand holds enormous amounts of information from people and rightly many people are concerned not only that their privacy is being breached but that they have not been informed of that breach. So I am certainly following that up. 
I think it is very important that the Government is up front about this. I remember way back in the Government Administration Committee when we first did the legislation relating to Births Deaths and Marriages which was in the good old days when Labour was still in Government. There was much suspicion about opening up the registers to New Zealand through the digital system. There was a huge amount of suspicion and it was very understandable. Way back then identity frauds were starting to occur but now look at today—an average of 2000 New Zealanders are affected by online scams identity theft credit card fraud and sophisticated viruses every day. According to Veda Advantage for the 2008-09 year there were more than 7000 incidents of fraud and false pretences using credit and bank cards and credit by fraud and the New Zealand Police identified 900 cases of identity fraud in New Zealand in 2009. I think that those are just a fraction of the real figure. 
It is very understandable that New Zealanders feel so anxious about their private information because it can be misused as other colleagues have referred to. It is also something very personal—our unique identity. It belongs to us and our identities are precious to us. In the past we have held them in the form of passports licences and family documents such as family photos and diaries. Many of those of course get lost in things like the dreadful Christchurch earthquake. You know some of those things like family photos will never be recovered. But the public records do hold on our behalf many of the most important things about our identity and that means that the New Zealand State has a special responsibility to treat that information about our identity with particular care. 
 Every New Zealand citizen has something on the record. Technological developments mean that access to personal information is changing. Personal information has become a valuable commodity to be bought sold combined sorted profiled and mined meaning that the opportunities for misuse are expanding every day. So we have to recognise the real threat that there is around identity fraud. The State has to take particular care. 
I am pleased that the Privacy Commissioner is satisfied with the legal safeguards and controls in this legislation. We hope that will hold true and we hope that this legislation will see a real improvement in the Government’s igovt strategy and in the Government’s protection of private information.