Allyson West: Who destroyed people's property tax details?

MINISTER of Public Administration Allyson West, on Tuesday, told the Senate that all details collected from people in 2009 and 2010 for property tax valuations was destroyed by someone.

She spoke on Opposition Senator Wade Mark's private motion which had originally urged the Government to immediately fully proclaim all parts of the Data Protection Act to protect people's personal details, although during the debate this was subject to three amendments each offering its own time line.

West said the Ministry of Finance had approached three public utilities – TTEC, WASA and TTEC – for help to get information towards doing property valuations too, but they had each responded they were not lawfully able to assist.

In contrast, she said the Inland Revenue Division (IRD) at present may lawfully ask public and private bodies for individual's info to help carry out their role under the tax laws, but she suggested this state of affairs could be impeded by the full enactment of the Data Protection Act.

She said section five of the act generally says a person's knowledge and consent is required before their data is shared but she said that perhaps the number of exceptions to this rule should be expanded.

Noting that the act says personal details should not be held by a public agency for any longer than necessary, West asked who would determine the period required to retain that information.

Saying that the IRD considered people's tax details for the past six years but had the power to consider them for any period if it could establish fraud or wilful negligence, she asked if that meant a person could successfully argue for their tax details to be expunged in year seven unless the IRD had established a case of fraud or wilful negligence against him/her.

West said that a sharing of information among public agencies could help them to better deliver services to members of the public, as she called for a consultation to be undertaken on this notion of public agency data-sharing. She also said the protection of personal privacy was important.

West hoped the proposed Revenue Authority (TTRA) would not be hamstrung by a lack of access to information. She said in an era of things like ransomware attacks, the Ministry of Digital Transformation must be given time to do its work in reviewing the act.