Bill's amendment could mean world of secrets and lies

Fintan Patrick Walsh

A watered-down 'McHistory' view of reality could be all we get if tighter controls on access to public information go ahead, leading historians say.

The Births, Death, Marriages and Relationships Amendment Bill clamps down on access to information, currently available to virtually anyone. It follows concerns about identity fraud and the ease of accessing official records.

Under the bill's provisions, an individual will be able to access only personal birth records, details of those of an immediate family member, or someone born more than 100 years ago. For information about anyone else, authorisation from the person concerned would be needed.

The planned legislation has some top historians up in arms. They say it is likely to have a huge impact on future reading of 20th century history, and runs counter to the freeing up of similar information in other countries.

"Probably what concerns me the most is that the whole idea of public registration was to ensure that this information was on the public record. Making that information private is an attack on freedom of expression," says forensic researcher and author Graeme Hunt.

"It is a breach of human rights."

Hunt, who wrote Black Prince, a biography of unionist Fintan Patrick Walsh, and who is currently working on a book about New Zealand spies, argues that the restrictions will make it impossible for him and others to write "real" history.

Without access to public records historians would have been unable to write many of the books and papers they have produced, Hunt says.

"What will happen is that we're going to get a whole lot of glossed over history. Seeing an original document tells you so much about our history, and it often differs from what a family will tell you or what conventional history says."

During research for Black Prince, Hunt discovered Walsh had lied about his name - it was actually Patrick Tuohy - and where he was born. He also discovered that one of Walsh's brothers was an alcoholic and another had died in a mental institution.

"I was able to put together an unvarnished family history, not some bulls*** the family had told me about someone dying of old age..."

Political scientist Barry Gustafson has written biographies of Robert Muldoon and Michael Savage, and is currently working on former Prime Minister David Lange's entry for the Dictionary of New Zealand, as well as completing a biography of Sir Keith Holyoake.