Looks like we have been mentioned in the news, twice this week.
Admittedly it's a tit for tat political spat, there must be an election on. However, this part is promising 'The government is already reviewing the passport validity period with a view to extending it to 10 years'. ------------------------------------------ 1 September 2014 'Labour's Trevor Mallard released the party's Internal Affairs policy today. He pointed to a recent petition signed by 15,000 people calling for a return to the 10-year passport time-frame, following the move to five-year passports in 2005. The petition and a recommendation from Parliament's Government and administration committee has already sparked a review of the validity period review, with a view to returning to 10-year passports. While Parliament's Government and administration committee refused to make a decision on 10-year passports, instead recommending the review, Mallard said Labour would make it happen. "While National is not prepared to make any firm commitments to that, Labour is. Restoring the 10-year life for passports will bring New Zealand into line with the US, Australia, Canada and the European Union." The change was made in 2005, primarily for security reasons, but Labour said there was now a lower risk of passport fraud due to facial recognition technology. There would be no additional cost, though it would remain at five years for those aged 15 and under because of their changing features. Read more ------------------------------------------ 2 September 2014 Internal Affairs Minister Peter Dunne said the ‘announcement’ by Labour ’s Trevor Mallard that if elected, a Labour-led government would restore passports to 10 year validity clearly shows how inattentive Mr Mallard is on this issue. "The government is already reviewing the passport validity period with a view to extending it to 10 years following formal Select Committee consideration of this issue. Unlike the once-over-lightly approach by Mr Mallard, the Government is undertaking a thorough review that takes account of security considerations, increase in cost and the need to maintain the fast and efficient processing times achieved by the online passport renewal systems", says Mr Dunne. Read more ------------------------------------------------------- We hear back from Mr Dunne on December 1st regarding the outcome of his passport review, as usual we will keep you posted. Kyle Lockwood Spokesman nzten.com OUR AIM Reinstate ten-year passports to New Zealand citizens. |
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