Paraone Pita: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
Paraone Pita: Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill — Second Reading 
[Volume:631;Page:3496] 
PITA PARAONE (NZ First) 
: 
 I make this contribution to the debate on behalf of New Zealand First and I want to say from the outset that this House has an obligation and a responsibility to ensure that the legislation we pass particularly in relation to taxpayer funds provides a protection from fraud. New Zealand First will support any bill that protects and ensures the credibility of taxpayer expenditure. Notwithstanding the reasons previous speakers have provided to the House for supporting this bill we support it particularly in terms of the credibility of taxpayer expenditure. I quote from the background to the bill set out in the Bills Digest: “The Bill has been introduced to ‘help minimise overpayments of benefits and student allowances help the recovery of beneficiary and student debt arising from those overpayments”—I suggest that some of the comments about the use of overpayments were that it was actually fraud—“and help the detection of fraud. More generally the match will be another layer in the [Ministry of Social Development’s] efforts to protect the integrity of the benefit system’.” 
This bill amends the Housing Restructuring Act of 1992 and as a consequence the Privacy Act of 1993. It enables Housing New Zealand Corporation to disclose information about tenants and tenancies to the Ministry of Social Development as the department responsible for the administration of the Social Security Act. New Zealand First supports the intent of this bill because we believe it will help to prevent further abuse of the benefit system plus minimise the opportunities for fraudulent use of taxpayers’ money. It will also help to detect and minimise benefit and student allowance overpayments. 
During the first reading we expressed concern about the privacy issues this bill raises and the ease with which this age of electronic information affords intrusion into people’s private lives. The age of Big Brother is well and truly upon us now and we need to exercise the utmost caution and vigilance when applying to legislation what technology now allows. Just because the means are there does not mean we need to use them. However we are satisfied that any information sharing carried out under this legislation will be subject to strict controls and sought only for the purposes outlined in the bill. Checks and balances are vital in the exercise of democracy and this bill is no exception to that. The rules relating to the use and disposal of information as laid out in Part 10 of the Privacy Act certainly apply to this legislation. 
The information age is a double-edged sword in the sense that it enables unnecessary and abhorrent intrusion into our private lives which we must do all we can to prevent. However it also allows for better detection and prevention of abuse of systems and fraudulent use of taxpayers’ money. Too often in the public sector the left hand does not know what the right hand is doing. Now that we have the technology that allows us to detect and prevent fraud or conversely departmental errors we should use it. 
New Zealand First is satisfied that the Ministry of Social Development and Housing New Zealand Corporation as the two Government departments affected by this bill will use that technology sparingly and that they will use it to maximise people’s benefit entitlements as well as to detect fraud and that they will apply the legislation with the intention with which it is written. 
I want to comment on some things that have been said about the number of boarders some State tenants have. Although some allusion was made to certain supporters of certain political parties I suggest that some of the families they talk about having two three or six boarders actually number six eight or 10. If we are going to be pedantic about that we need to define what constitutes a family. I know that in the case of some of my relatives although eight 10 or 12 people may be living in one house they are all related. Some of them are descendants of the same mother and father. We talk about addressing the social issues our country confronts. Without exception everyone talks about the support of the family. 
Therefore I bring that to the notice of the House. Although we make those general comments some families have those numbers but they do not fit the description of the word “family” as it has been applied in this debate. 
This bill should be seen as a forerunner for other similar communications between Government departments. I refer to the issue of those who owe outstanding fines and who are about to flee the country. I refer to the immigration laws and hopefully during the review process of the Immigration Service these sorts of things will be picked up. At the end of the day I reaffirm New Zealand First’s support for this bill. We see it as another way of ensuring the prevention of fraudulent use of taxpayer funding.