Privacy (Cross-Border Information) Amendment Bill

Second Reading

Thursday 26 August 2010; 3.40pm

Rahui Katene, MP for Te Tai Tonga

It is a pleasure to stand and take a call on this, the second reading of the Privacy (Cross-border Information) Amendment Bill.

While preparing for this speech, I read a staggering statistic in relation to this bill. According to the Privacy Rights Centre, up to 10 million Americans are victims of ID theft each year. It is mind-blowing to think of so many people being cheated of their unique identity, and having their personal information stolen from under their eyes. I have to say that when our caucus was discussing this bill, my colleague Hone Harawira was rather amused to think that some young American punk could be running around using his name and trying to access his non-existent credit card. But it was less amusing when we pointed out to him that that fake Hone Harawira could be able to access his passport and take off anywhere in the world—say, Paris—and create problems over there.

So there is a problem, and it is good to know that one of the immediate advantages of this bill is that it will issue a greater protection for personal information.

The bill will also provide greater assurance to other countries that the privacy laws in this country can be relied upon to adequately protect personal data. In many respects, this bill has been a long time coming. Since 1998 the European Commission has been urging the New Zealand Government to introduce two minor amendments to the Privacy Act, in order to meet the test of adequacy regarding the law about the privacy of personal information. That will be a benefit for both the protection of personal rights and New Zealand’s trading relationships.

But for Māori there is an even more important reason why this bill deserves to be supported. It comes back to whakapapa, the unique genetic code that links us through our genealogy to our tūpuna. One of the things that Māori will often say to one another is that when a Māori child is hit, the whakapapa of its tūpuna is being attacked. The point is that the unique genealogy that links descendents to those who have walked before them must be respected and regarded as sacred. So this bill helps to preserve the sacred association to our origins that we acknowledge.

It will help to ensure that New Zealand law meets the expectations of our trading partners, and it will remove an anomaly so that people living overseas can access their personal information held here in New Zealand.

The Māori Party is happy to support this bill, and the advance it makes in keeping pace with standards of data protection across the world. More particularly, we support it because it enables our whakapapa to be cared for appropriately. Globalisation, the growth of the Internet, and rapidly declining communication costs have presented new challenges in respect of protecting the personal information of individuals. We hope that with these amendments there will be superior protection for New Zealanders engaged in international transactions. There will be better access for people to their individual information, while limits will be placed on the transfer of that information. We are pleased to provide our support for this bill.

ENDS

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