Choudhary Ashraf: Identity Information Confirmation Bill — First Reading 
Choudhary Ashraf: Identity Information Confirmation Bill — First Reading 
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Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY (Labour) 
: 
 Thank you Mr Deputy Speaker— 
H V Ross Robertson 
: Salaam alaikum. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: Salaam alaikum to the member. First of all I say that it is interesting to hear from John Hayes— 
John Hayes 
: Salaam alaikum. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: Salaam to that member as well. He was criticising a Green MP who had I thought highlighted some important issues. I know that the Greens disagree with the Identity Information Confirmation Bill and will not be supporting it but I thought that Keith Locke highlighted some key issues in this bill. Hopefully when the bill goes through the select committee process some of those issues will be fixed. 
This bill is important in order to provide a consent-based service to allow both private and public sector agencies to check identity information. I will talk about the issue of consent later on. I think that issue will be very important particularly when dealing with people like the migrant community and people who are not sure why they have to give this information. Some bullying tactics could be used on people to make them provide information that they may not want to give consent to sharing. That will be an important issue for a lot of people. 
The Identity Information Confirmation Bill extends the use of the Data Validation Service to public and private sector agencies on a strictly need-to-know basis as John Hayes said before. Clearly there are privacy issues. As Ross Robertson was saying earlier that is where we will have to be very careful as this bill goes forward in the select committee. We will have to listen very closely to what the Privacy Commissioner has to say about some of the privacy issues in this area. This bill is important and this kind of service will be important in ensuring compliance with anti - money-laundering and counterfeiting measures and in protecting against terrorism and those kinds of issues. 
It is important for this bill to go forward but those two issues as I mentioned—the obtaining of consent from people and also the privacy issue—will be two key areas where we will have to— 
H V Ross Robertson 
: The Privacy Commissioner’s recommendations are very important. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: That is right. As Ross Robertson has rightly said we will have to listen to the Privacy Commissioner’s views on this bill as we go forward. Clearly we will be looking to the Privacy Commissioner’s report. 
Identity fraud is a very serious and growing problem in New Zealand and we are supporting this bill for that reason. We know that some issues have arisen recently in the local elections—in the Papatoetoe area for example—that could be related to some of these identity issues. I think it is a very important issue and this bill is very timely from that point of view as well. 
The accessing of information held by the Department of Internal Affairs by private and public agencies that is proposed in this bill is facilitated by the digitisation of the department’s records which was kick-started under the previous Labour Government. The recent saga of David Garrett—“The Jackal”—shows how easy it is to commit identity fraud. It is very unfortunate— 
Su’a William Sio 
: Especially from an ACT member. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: —particularly from an ACT member who believes in making these kinds of laws to make it very difficult for others to do these things. It is amazing. It has been said that the former member made an application for a passport—a second passport if you like—but that he never travelled overseas on that passport. One day when it comes out it will be interesting to know whether he actually used the second passport. A person could get out of New Zealand with his or her original real passport but what about somebody using that passport overseas? How would we know whether it was used overseas? It could be taken in the person’s bag and used somewhere overseas. Hopefully those issues will come out one day and we will all find out. 
I will be very keen to see whether the ACT Party will support this bill. Those members do not seem to support the notion of transparency and openness when it comes to their own MPs. I think it would be interesting to hear. I see that no ACT Party MP is present to say what ACT will do about— 
Mr DEPUTY SPEAKER 
: The member cannot refer to the absence of members. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: We want to make sure that going forward this bill has the support of hopefully most of the political parties in Parliament. Too much identity fraud is happening in New Zealand at the moment as has been highlighted by my colleague Ross Robertson. He listed a number of the frauds that have happened in this country in terms of money being withdrawn from banks and also in terms of theft bribery corruption and lending fraud. I think this bill is important and it has come out in a very timely fashion to respond to identity fraud. 
It is important particularly in respect of the diversity of our population. People come from different backgrounds. Some people change their name particularly their first name. When some people come to Western countries they change their first name to make it easier for other people to understand. That can be an issue particularly in relation to issuing passports and certificates. I think that is something we have to look into. 
Going forward I am particularly worried about the consent provisions. As I said earlier ethnic communities and migrant communities often come from countries where they have not had a good experience if you like with the police and with State agencies. When they come to this country they are often very scared when dealing with the Government and the police. They can be forced in some different ways to provide consent to give their information. We will have to educate our people about the fact that they have the right under this bill not to provide their information without proper consent. I think that is important. I am sure members across the other side of the House will be writing to ask some of the migrant and ethnic communities to make submissions on this bill. I think it is important for them particularly. 
H V Ross Robertson 
: In Manukau we have so many different groups. 
Dr ASHRAF CHOUDHARY 
: Exactly—180 or something. Mr Ross Robertson deals with them all the time. He knows the vulnerability of those people. People who cannot understand English very well can easily be pushed into giving a consent that they otherwise may not want to give. 
Some members on this side of the House are very familiar with some of those issues among the ethnic communities. I hope that Mr Simon Power is listening to this. I know he lives in the beautiful town of Palmerston North which probably does not have such huge problems. But in the very diverse situation in Auckland we have people who are not very familiar—and I am very serious about this—with the local law. Particularly if somebody is asking for consent to give some information they might very easily give that consent when they do not have to. Those issues concern my community. 
I know that Mr Bakshi on the other side of the Chamber is probably listening too. He will know that there are vulnerable people out in the community who would like to have some assurance that they will not be forced into giving consent to provide this information particularly to the private sector. I am more concerned about that. I do not have a serious concern at all about giving information to public departments to the public sector people but there is a real concern about giving information to the private sector.