A father applied for a review of his child support obligations, claiming that the child's mother's financial circumstances had improved after her remarriage. The woman submitted details of her new husband's income in response to the application.

The information was disclosed to the father and the new husband complained to me.

Section 96H of the Child Support Act 1991 requires the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to notify the other party of an application for a review (in this case, the mother). It also requires the Commissioner to send a copy of the other party's reply, plus accompanying documentation, to the applicant (in this case, the father).

Section 7 of the Privacy Act 1993 provides that nothing in information privacy principle 11 (which limits disclosure) derogates from any statutory provision which authorises or requires personal information to be made available.

As s 96H is a statutory provision requiring the Commissioner of Inland Revenue to disclose information, I formed the opinion that IRD had not breached principle 11 by disclosing the information about the new husband's income.

At my suggestion, IRD took some further steps to tell parties to child support reviews that anything they gave IRD in response to a review application would be sent to the person who applied for the review.

August 1999