GEORGINA BEYER (Labour): I am pleased to rise to speak in the second reading of the Housing Restructuring and Tenancy Matters (Information Matching) Amendment Bill. I was also very pleased the Social Services Committee, which I chair, received this bill and took it through the select committee process. The bill was referred to the committee on 13 December 2005. Submissions closed on 27 February 2006. We considered two submissions and were grateful for the advice we received from the Housing New Zealand Corporation, the Ministry of Social Development, and the Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Also, I would like to thank all my colleagues on the select committee for their effort in dispatching this bill back to the House as rapidly as they have.

The bill authorises Housing New Zealand Corporation to disclose to the Ministry of Social Development information relating to its tenants and tenancies. The Ministry of Social Development will use the information to determine eligibility for all forms of financial assistance granted under the Social Security Act 1964 and the Student Allowances Regulations 1998, and to recover debts owed to the Crown in respect of those benefits. This is the result of the 2003 and 2004 Budgets, in which Cabinet approved information matching between those two agencies in order to improve the integrity of the income support system. The sharing of information will minimise benefit and student allowance debt overpayments by Housing New Zealand tenants and also help with the recovery of overpayments when they occur. This information-matching programme is another layer in the Government’s effort to protect the integrity of the benefit system. This will result not only in savings but also in an enhanced credibility of the benefit system. Information matching could lead to an anticipated saving of around $1.4 million a year. Expected savings are made in overpayments of benefits and allowances and debt recovered, less the cost of recovery.

People can from time to time find themselves, quite inadvertently at times, at odds with regard to their benefits or allowances—perhaps having been overpaid and not acting quickly enough to rectify the situation. Debt accrues and people can find themselves in quite a lot of trouble. I believe that this kind of legislation will assist in minimising that situation. Also, it is worth remembering that when people have quite purposefully gone about trying to defraud our benefit system, it is incumbent on any Government that happens to be in office at the time to maintain, uphold, and improve upon the integrity of the welfare benefit system for all New Zealanders. This bill certainly addresses the loopholes that can sometimes occur for some people.

Just as I head towards concluding my brief contribution to this reading, I recall one effort made in the late 1980s by the then Labour Government, relating to the incredible benefit fraud that was being detected throughout the system at the time. It was what I call quite an innovation in liberating some people from being caught up fraudulently in the benefit system. The then Labour Government instigated over a period of a couple of years an amnesty that cleared the decks, enabling many people to unburden themselves of debts they had accrued or of fraudulent activities that had not yet been detected. It liberated many people, enabling them to start again with clean slates. This legislation will minimise any possibility of people being able to defraud the benefit system, and information matching will assist in that.