agencies to help build their privacy and security
capabilities.112 The GCPO accordingly has no role
in investigating non-compliance with the Privacy
Act.
In 2017, the State Services Commissioner
designated the Chief Executive of Statistics New
Zealand (Stats NZ) as the Government Chief Data
Steward. Stats NZ has a key role in supporting
government agencies to build their capabilities as
regards their use and management of data. This
includes the development and implementation
of data standards. The principles of transparency,
trust and integrity around the use of government
data are described by Stats NZ as being “at the
heart of this work.”113
The Court considered that the legislative intent
instead indicated that privacy law would be left
for “incremental development” in the absence
of a statutory right to privacy.118 The Court also
held that the New Zealand’s international human
rights obligations under the ICCPR also provide
a basis for the New Zealand common law
recognising the tort of breach of privacy.119
2.9 Common law
As described earlier in the paper, the common
law has long recognised that personal property
rights enable “individuals to maintain their right
to privacy and their civil liberties in general.”114
The New Zealand Courts have extended these
principles to include informational privacy, such
as in the Duffield and Moulton cases which
regarded the statutory power of police to
compulsorily acquire information from arrestees
to confirm identity.115 In Moulton, the Court of
Appeal held that the statutory power should be
confined to recording details necessary to identify
the arrestee, and may not be used to compile a
personal history or dossier of information on
the persons employment record, schooling,
friendships, financial circumstances and the like
under pain of legal penalty.116
The existence of a tort for breach of privacy in
New Zealand law was also inferred by the Court
of Appeal in the case of Hosking v Runting.117 In
that case, the Court held that the omission in
the BORA and the Privacy Act of a free-standing
privacy right did not preclude the existence of
a common law remedy for breach of privacy.
112 https://www.ict.govt.nz/governance-and-leadership/the-gcio-team/
government-chief-privacy-officer/.
113 https://www.stats.govt.nz/about-us/data-leadership/
114 Transport Ministry v Payn [1977] 2 NZLR 50 (CA) per Woodhouse J
115 See Butler at 3.3.21 p 58; Duffield v Police (No 2) [1971] NZLR 710,
Moulton v Police [1980] 1 NZLR 443.
116 Moulton v Police [1980] 1 NZLR 443 at 446
117 Hosking v Runting [2004] 1 NZLR 1.
118 Ibid at 26.
119 Ibid at 38.
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