MEDIA RELEASE 20 January 2013
“Internal Affairs Minister Chris Tremain has announced today that New Zealand passport validity is presently being reviewed by the government”, says Kyle Lockwood, spokesperson for nzten.com, a group advocating for the return of 10 year NZ Passports.
“Tremain said 77 per cent of countries that followed International Civil Aviation Organisation protocol had five-year passports, but what he didn’t say is most of the nations with five-year passports are third world countries”
The minister also expressed he is not interested in reviewing a ten year option enjoyed by most OECD nations including the USA, the UK and Australia.
“Canada has five-year passports, but after extensive public consultation, Canada is introducing ten-year biometric passports in July this year”
“By introducing ten-year passports this will bring Canada in line with four other nations of the Five Nations Passport Group, consisting of Australia, Canada, the UK, and the USA, who issue citizens with ten-year passports, New Zealand is the last remaining country in this group of developed nations to deny its citizens the option of a ten-year passport” said Mr Lockwood.
“We have already written a formal complaint to Chief Executive Officer of the Department of Internal Affairs, and we have plans to submit a petition to the NZ House of Representatives, asking the New Zealand Government to reinstate the option of ten-year passports to New Zealand Citizens” concluded Mr Lockwood.
NOTES
nzten.com is a rapidly growing group of New Zealanders advocating for the return of ten-year NZ passports.
ENDS