Email this page
Send this page to a friend.
This page is printer friendly.
Christchurch Earthquake (Information Sharing) Code 2011 (Temporary)
| The Christchurch Earthquake (Information Sharing) Code 2011 (Temporary) expired on 30 June 2011. |
Following the Christchurch earthquake, and the declaration of a state of national emergency, the Privacy Commissioner issued a code of practice on 24 February 2011 to assist in the response.
The code was initially issued to expire with the state of emergency. However, it was amended to give a fixed expiry date to provide greater certainty for agencies and will continue uninterrupted, notwithstanding that the state of emergency was lifted on 1 May, until 30 June 2011.
The Code enables those dealing with the emergency to share personal information to assist victims of the earthquake and their families, and help in the coordination and management of the response.
Although the Privacy Act already allows disclosure of information for public safety, law enforcement and health reasons, the code provides greater certainty and broader discretion at this critical time.
View the Code incorporating both Amendment No. 1 and Amendment No. 2.
View Amendment No. 1 to the Code, issued on 9 March 2011.
View Amendment No. 2 to the Code, issued on 13 May 2011.
View the Notes to the Code issued on 24 February 2011.
For further background, see the letters from the Privacy Commissioner to the Regulations Review Committee in relation to the issue of the Code, Amendment No. 1 and Amendment No. 2.
During May 2011 the Privacy Commissioner made enquiries into the operation of the code and explored whether it needed to be amended or extended. The Commissioner commissioned a Christchurch-based privacy lawyer to interview a number of staff of agencies involved in the earthquake response. The Office of the Privacy Commissioner also surveyed all the key government departments involved. Reports of the results of the interviews and of the survey informed the Commissioner in her decision to extend the code in Amendment No 2 and allow it to expire on 30 June.
Additional documentation concerning the Christchurch Earthquake and privacy issues:
- Katherine Gibson, "Large scale emergencies and personal information - can the Privacy Act cope?", 2011, post-graduate paper submitted for an LLM, University of Auckland - this paper is not written by or for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner but includes an interesting and detailed discussion of the code;
- Office of the Privacy Commissioner, Summary of Earthquake related enquiries from 10 September 2010 to 8 May 2011;
- Letter from Insurance Council of New Zealand concerning householder access to insurers' engineers' reports, 4 May 2011.