Information Technology Minister Paul Swain says the Electronic Transactions Bill tabled in Parliament this week is good news for business.

"Not only does this Bill help reduce compliance costs, it also enables a whole new phase in the rollout of e-government," Paul Swain said.

"The aim of the Electronic Transactions Bill is to allow thousands of statutory legal requirements for writing, signature, and retention and production of documents to be met using electronic methods.

"Government departments did a mammoth trawl through their legislation last year to prepare for the Bill and identify a small number of exclusions.

"The Commerce Select Committee received some excellent submissions during its deliberations and has refined technical aspects of the Bill and reduced the number of exclusions.

"The New Zealand Electronic Transactions Bill excludes only six Acts in their entirety, compared to 30 Acts excluded from similar Australian legislation.

"A number of exclusions have been allowed simply because permitting the use of electronic methods is being addressed through other avenues - for example the current review of electoral legislation, and mooted changes in land legislation [to allow for electronic lodgment and land titles dealings].

"The Bill specifically enables Courts and Tribunals to use electronic methods through making changes in their rules or through issuing guidelines. The onus will be on the Courts to quickly make these changes," Paul Swain said.

Ends

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>