10. DARIEN FENTON (Labour) Link to this
to the Minister of Internal Affairs
What progress is he making to reduce the occurrence of identity fraud in New Zealand?
Hon RICK BARKER (Minister of Internal Affairs) Link to this
A good deal. I have introduced a number of measures to reduce the ease with which fraudsters can falsify identity. Those measures include e-passports, which, by the use of a microchip that contains matching bio-data in the front of the passports, make it near to impossible to falsify travel documentation. As well as that I have recently introduced the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill to the House, which, if enacted, will mean that the introduction of new access provisions will reflect more realistically the privacy and security needs of the 21st century, and by doing so will make it more difficult for fraudsters to commit crimes of identity.
Do the measures in the Births, Deaths, Marriages, and Relationships Registration Amendment Bill make the job of competent historians who are writing about 20th century New Zealand difficult, if not impossible?
No, not at all. The bill ensures that people will still have access to records, provided they have a legitimate purpose and permission to access those records and to use that information. The primary concern in introducing the bill is about the protection of personal and private information. A recent survey showed that 52 percent of New Zealanders were concerned about identity theft. As an example of the type of problem that the bill will address, I inform members that 4.3 percent of all adult Americans—over 9 million people—are the victims of identity fraud each year. We know the cost of identity fraud in the UK was £1.9 billion last year, and in Australia identity fraud cost $1.1 billion. In New Zealand the cost of identity fraud is estimated at around $400 million a year, and to our economy this is a very fast-growing type of crime. I am sure that New Zealanders expect the Government to guard information it has on them and to do everything it can to prevent identity theft. This bill is an important safeguard in addressing those concerns.