Clark DavidDATA AND STATISTICS BILLFirst ReadingHon Dr DAVID CLARK (Minister of Statistics): I present a legislative statement on the Data and Statistics Bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon Dr DAVID CLARK: I move That the Data and Statistics Bill be now read a first time. I nominate the Governance and Administration Committee to consider the bill.It is with great anticipation that I stand here before you all today to begin the debate on the Data and Statistics Bill. Data and statistics have the power to change people's lives. They can drive innovation; they can contribute to economic social cultural progress environmental progress. Individuals communities and businesses use data and statistics to shape our world. I'm excited. Data and statistics can be used for many many purposes including to understand what's going on for Māori for iwi for hapū in their particular situations. We know for example that Māori need to be more involved in data for our country's future prosperity and wellbeing. Robust impartial data can give insights that ground effective democracy and decision making and they can also ensure that we have accountability. These things are all critical for a high-functioning democracy. Accessible high-quality data and statistics mean everyone can participate in Government.This bill today replaces the Statistics Act of 1975. This is an historic occasion making sure we have modern fit for purpose legislation that can be used to drive the changes we are seeing to make sure that they're underpinned by good ethical frameworks. As data becomes more ubiquitous as it becomes used in different ways we need the tools and modern legislation to make sure we can continue to drive change in this country that is evidence based and that can hold Governments to account for the changes that they make.For more than 40 years that previous Act has done its duty and it has done a good job. It's underpinned high trust in Government a focus on high-quality statistics the independence of the Government Statistician and so forth but this Act was written before personal computers were widespread before social media before the cultural changes that technology continues to drive. So while that legislation has stood us in good stead it's time to make sure we've got a new bill here that will turn into an Act that reflects Aotearoa's evolving aspirations.So there are a number of key issues that this bill sets out to resolve. The 1975 Act makes no reference to data at all. It lacks the flexibility to respond to the changes in data and digital that we are seeing. It does not provide the kinds of tools we need to boost the supply and quality of administrative data—so this is data that's collected for other purposes often: for registrations service delivery transactions recordkeeping. That data is becoming increasingly important and is used more widely but the tools are not in the Act to take advantage of it to the full extent. The current Act is completely silent on the Crown-Māori relationship. It doesn't take seriously the responsibility of the Crown to meet its obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. Finally the existing Act because of its age makes for challenges in interpretation. It doesn't anticipate many of the situations we find ourselves in today.So the new Data and Statistics Bill strengthens and futureproofs our data collection framework for official statistics. It recognises the Crown's responsibility to provide relevant reliable and accessible data reflecting Māori iwi and hapū interests and it modernises the framework for accessing data and research. We think these key objectives are captured in the bill and like the old bill it's also strong on protection safeguards to make sure that data is used appropriately and that people who would misuse data are held to account.Administrative data has become more and more important. It's becoming increasingly critical because it is getting harder to ascertain the statistics by traditional methods and particularly from some communities. So globally there is a move towards collecting administrative data and using it to complement the data that's collected by more traditional methods through surveys. At the same time as it's becoming harder to collect the data the data is more in demand. So we have an increased need for data. We're seeing exponential growth in the use of data to support decisions around complex environmental changes economic changes and indeed to support wellbeing issues. So there's a need for relevant legislation that supports those changes we're observing in society. Supported by the right framework we could counter data challenges by realising the exciting potential for innovation and growth in statistical products and services that support that policy and investment.The bill does play its role in strengthening the support for the Government Statistician as the main producer of official statistics and supports Stats New Zealand to become a data-first agency an administrative data-first agency. It also provides for the Statistician to make mandatory requests for certain types of data in certain formats as well. So these are all the tools that will support a modern data collection framework.The bill also requires review of census. It requires that the Government Statistician take responsibility for the operation of each census. There are new statutory obligations on public sector agencies designed to improve data quality to make sure Statistics New Zealand is informed of any changes in their collection methods and so forth. It also clarifies that the Government Statistician can authorise departments and other agencies to collect data on their behalf and that goes also for Māori and iwi organisations. For many Māori data is a taonga and the ability to collect timely data can improve and advance economic environmental and cultural wellbeing. So the bill gives powers to the Government Statistician to effectively work with Māori to work out what the best way is to give effect to the Crown's responsibility under Te Tiriti o Waitangi the Treaty of Waitangi and to recognise Māori interests along the way as the Statistician performs his or her functions.Under the bill it's also a requirement for the Government Statistician to foster the building of capability and capacity in Māori communities. This is a significant and important and meaningful change and the Statistician is obliged to find opportunities to meaningfully engage with Māori and meaningfully build that capacity and capability. At this point I do want to also acknowledge the Data Iwi Leaders Group who provided meaningful and useful contributions on early versions of this bill. I continue to work with them both through my role with the Department of Internal Affairs and looking at the coming digital strategy as well as in my role as Minister of Statistics and I do want to acknowledge the work of the Data Iwi Leaders Group.There are protections around access to data the transparency of who's using data which researchers can access it and also a requirement to judge whether the use of data is in the public interest. That is all a responsibility for the Government Statistician. Those tests are out there to look at the likely benefits of research any harms that can be caused. There are protections around the anonymisation of data and so on and there are additional protections around the use of our data by overseas-based researchers. Also requirements around the publication of data to make sure that the benefits of using that data are shared with the wider public so that the public gets the benefit of the data that's collected on their behalf using the taxpayer funds the funds the Government administers to collect censuses to collect all that other data and to process it.There are of course appropriate protections around privacy. We can't have a conversation in 2021 about the use of data without thinking about privacy concerns. It's imperative that data which is extremely sensitive by nature is appropriately protected and this bill has protections in place that govern the collection the management and the use of data by Statistics New Zealand and by other people that might work also with that data. So there are strong protections in place that provide the protection to people whose data is in the system. There are accountabilities for those who would use the data to make sure that there's not the identification of anybody that shouldn't be identified in that process and there is a penalties regime which is updated in the bill.The Data and Statistics Bill is a crucial enabler for ensuring transparency and trust in Aotearoa and in supporting the decisions we make to make sure that we have progress to make sure that we have better environmental economic and cultural progress in this country. I'm very excited to be updating the Statistics Act of 1975 delighted to bring this bill to this House and I trust members of this House will enjoy the debate and support this wonderful bill.DEPUTY SPEAKER: The question is that the motion be agreed to.