O'Rourke Denis: Urgent Debates — Social Development Ministry—Security of Private Information 
Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume 
O'Rourke Denis: Urgent Debates — Social Development Ministry—Security of Private Information 
[Sitting date: 16 October 2012. Volume:684;Page:5821. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.] 
DENIS O’ROURKE (NZ First) 
: 
 This is yet another case of the Government failing in its most basic duty to protect the rights of ordinary New Zealanders. If the Government collects as it has in this case important and personal information and records that information then it clearly has a duty of care to make sure that that information remains confidential. That is the basic function that has been breached in this case. There can this time be no excuses. There have been far too many occasions within Government agencies when breaches of privacy have occurred in just this first year of this term of this Government. First of all we had ACC we had the Inland Revenue Department we had Work and Income and now we have this. When is it going to stop? It cannot be allowed to go on and on and on. 
Work and Income in this case has breached the public trust. It is not something that the public of New Zealand should let go past without protest. It is totally unacceptable. I listened to the Minister for Social Development and her apology and I listened to her explanation today. I heard terms such as that some individual files were not breached but one was. Well what has that got to do with anything? It does not matter how many files are breached. It does not matter what information was obtained that should not have been obtained. It is not good enough whether it is a lot or a few. I heard that only “a high level of personal information was accessed” and that of course really does not matter either because it is perfectly clear that important personal information was available through the department’s own facilities. 
I also heard the Minister talk about being “disappointed” in the performance of the department concerning these breaches of privacy being “not acceptable”. But what we really did not hear from the Minister was whether she was taking any personal responsibility for this and whether she was actually going to make sure that nothing of this kind would happen in the future. Quite frankly what I heard from the Minister was a totally inadequate response to such a serious issue. 
The flaws in the department’s kiosk system should have been identified by any number of in-house or external reviews. I am making the assumption that in this department like other departments there are robust in-house reviews and there is a robust system of auditing as to the performance of privacy provisions within departments. I did not hear from the Minister any words about that and I would like to know and I am sure the public would like to know too. 
In fact we do know that in April last year the Ministry of Social Development paid for a report by Dimension Data and it actually did expose a number of flaws in the system. Why did the Minister not talk about that? Why did the Minister not say what those flaws were? Why did the Minister not explain what has been done about those flaws? Or is she just not interested? Quite frankly that is the impression I get not just from this Minister but from this Government as a whole. It seems to be deeply and comprehensibly disinterested in the protection of the privacy of individuals in this country in respect of their personal information. 
Nothing whatsoever has happened about that particular review. We are left in this case with yet another example of a Government agency clearly inadequately staffed and inadequately funded where those high up in the hierarchy are merely going through the motions and ticking boxes and they are not in fact making sure that the privacy of people is genuinely protected. New Zealanders deserve a lot better than that. 
Under this Government we have of course seen a whole litany of these kinds of omissions. First amongst them was ACC and we eventually had the resignation of a Minister. We have had breaches of privacy in the Inland Revenue Department and now we have Work and Income. You have to ask: where is it all going? What is going to happen next? What will be the breach of privacy in what department or what agency next month? It cannot be allowed to happen. The only way that this Parliament can make sure it does not is to hold Ministers accountable. That in fact is what it is there to do. Ministers are responsible to this Parliament. 
What I have heard from this Minister is just this: that she does not think this is so serious that she should have done a lot more about it. As a result we have a comprehensive lack of trust in this Government by the public generally. When you heard the debate earlier today during question time and some of the things stated by the Prime Minister you would have had to ask yourself as an ordinary New Zealander whether you could have trust in him as the Prime Minister of this country. When you think about the performance of Mr John Banks in this House concerning the issues that have concerned him in recent times as an ordinary New Zealander you would have to ask basically whether you could really have trust in that particular Minister. I do not think many New Zealanders would be prepared to answer in respect of either of those cases that they have full trust in those Ministers. As I have already said we have already had a resignation from one Minister Mr Nick Smith and that came back to trust as well—trust in doing things properly and in accordance with correct procedures. 
What we have with this Government is a culture of mistrust. There is a disconnect between the trustworthiness of this Government and the expectations of the people in this country or what they should be. I have a number of questions to ask as a result of all this. First of all the most obvious question of them all: where is the ministerial responsibility? Where is the accountability? This sort of thing has happened far too often—in far too many departments—and the Government just glosses over it. Well it is time for this Minister to stand up and be counted. It is time for this Minister to resign. It is time for her to go. This issue is that important and it cannot be allowed to go past. She should now really consider her situation. Why has she not demanded the resignation of her chief executive? That should also be called for. 
In the end somebody has to take responsibility. It is not good enough for this to be glossed over once again. Why does nobody in this Government ever take responsibility for anything? It is always “Smile and spin your way out of these situations.” It is never “Let’s take responsibility.” This is the way it should be. That is what the expectation of this House must be—for that Minister to resign.