Source: New Zealand Parliament – Hansard
GLEN BENNETT (Labour—New Plymouth): Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Thank you to our previous speaker across the House, the member Stuart Smith, for that 10 minutes which did almost feel like eight years, actually. It was amazing—incredible. But here this evening—it’s still evening, isn’t it, wherever we are? I rise as a member of the Economic Development, Science and Innovation Committee, which is going to be taking this piece of legislation on, and I look forward to that, and I thank the Hon David Clark for bringing this up. As he mentioned last night, this is just one piece of our Government’s digital strategy which we are progressing with.
Now, I was listening to a podcast over the weekend, and it was around the iPhone. In 2007, I know some of us were a bit younger back then—but how quickly technology has changed, how quickly our digital footprint has changed in that time, when, once upon a time, in your bag, you had a laptop and a GPS and a camera and an iPod and some kind of mobile phone, and suddenly it was all in your pocket. We are now having to ensure that this piece of legislation, which is around our digital footprint and our identity and the framework that it brings, is fit for standards in 2021 and beyond.
This bill is about our digital identity services, giving people the ability to easily share trusted information about themselves to access the services that they need. This will also help with our consistencies, our trust, and the efficiencies of our digital identity services. It’s important work, and I look forward as a member of the select committee to hearing submissions from the public, and I commend this bill to the House.
