Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Shanks Katrina: Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:646;Page:15100] 
KATRINA SHANKS (National) 
: 
 It is my pleasure to take a call on Part 2 of the Social Assistance (Debt Prevention and Minimisation) Amendment Bill. Part 2 is not too dissimilar to Part 1 for it talks about amendments to the Customs and Excise Act 1996 in relation to locating debtors and to the Injury Prevention Rehabilitation and Compensation Act 2001 which concerns accident compensation. So Part 2 basically talks about matching the two agencies involved with those Acts. 
I was listening to my colleague Judith Collins talk about technology. She has a great point. When I first came to work in the workplace we had computers. They were not new technology to us; that is what we had gone through university with. We kind of forget that it takes a while for people who have not had them to catch up. It costs a lot of money for the infrastructure to put all these systems in place and to get the technology as it increases to a point where it can interact with all the different systems through all the different departments. We see now in the departments’ financial reviews and budgets that they have huge amounts of money set aside for information technology development and software and hardware upgrades. It is absolutely true that the more information we get the more it costs to have it and the more it costs to store it. We are getting to the stage now where the storage of the information we have uploaded is costing a huge amount to maintain and as technology changes and all the departments upgrade their software those departments cannot read all the old information they have because it is now in different technology and software. It is so important that we stay up to date. The matching of data in this bill is really the beginning of what we are seeing in this area of technology and it will become a lot more complex quicker technical and expensive but at the same time it is the tool we are becoming more and more reliant on in the world we live in. 
I think it is great that we are seeing this data matching beginning and happening through the different departments but it is also important that we recognise that we have to invest in this technology all the time and keep at the cutting edge of it because before we know it we will be able to match data with Australian databases as well. This will come with time as we all become closer because we are becoming much more global and more accepting of other people’s systems as we all get to the same playing field. New Zealand does have that distance and we have been a little behind compared with where things are in the United States and Australia. When I worked in London the technology over there was a lot more advanced than it had been where I worked in New Zealand. That was a very good point that my colleague made. 
This data matching is really important and I would like to tell members a little bit about it. I am reading the briefing paper that the Ministry of Social Development gave us which is absolutely fantastic. Every time I get up to speak I always look at the ministry’s briefing notes because we forget what the officials tell us. The briefing notes give us a lot of information when we are putting this type of legislation together. I would like to share a little bit on this aspect because no one has touched on it so far in this debate. It is not that I want to read the briefing paper because that is not a good thing to do but I will tell members a little about what the ministry said about the Customs and Excise Act and how it currently does not allow the ministry to match data with the Customs Service for debt recovery purposes. This is not about identifying people and stopping the debt; this is about how the ministry matches data up once people have the debt so the ministry is coming from a slightly different angle here. 
I did not know this but currently ministry staff issue individual notices manually under section 11 of the Social Security Act 1964 so it is still a very slow process. The number of notices issued by the ministry is significant. Currently it sends between 12000 and 14000 manual requests to the Customs Service per year. If members can just get their minds around how long it takes to process and match 12000 to 14000 manual requests—and to match them correctly—then they will realise that it all takes time and money. As we move forward in this process it means that the information is often not able to be produced in an effective and timely manner and the likelihood of debt repayment is also reduced. If somebody who owes a debt to the New Zealand Government comes into New Zealand from Australia the manual process takes so long that the person’s 2-week holiday has come and gone before the information can be matched. The information on that person has only just been matched when he or she is on the flight back to Australia again. The ministry estimates that there are up to 20000 people residing outside New Zealand who are no longer receiving a benefit and who owe approximately $70 million.