‘Privacy Act does not stand in the way of protecting children from harm’: commissioner
The government has accepted all nine recommendations in a recently concluded comprehensive public inquiry – conducted by Simon Moore, former judge of the High Court of New Zealand – with 41 findings in connection with the disappearance of the Phillips children.
“At the heart of this are the Phillips children who lived for almost four years in isolation from family, community and wider society, in squalid conditions which deprived them of the experiences, relationships, and opportunities New Zealanders would regard as fundamental to a happy and healthy childhood,” said Louise Upston, child poverty reduction minister and social development and employment minister, in a news release.
Moore recognised the complex environment, the heightened risk encountered by agencies trying to find the children, and the brave and dedicated individuals involved in the efforts. However, he accepted that agencies could have done more and listened to the family.
“The Inquiry found that the harm caused by Tom Phillips isolating the children from family, friends and society was underplayed, minimised or overlooked by agencies for significant periods,” Upston said. “So too were concerns of the maternal whānau, which were often minimised as being part of a parenting dispute.”
Moreover, Moore pointed to areas in which agencies could have shared the appropriate information and acted more urgently.
“The Inquiry also found that while agencies worked well together at times - a more consistent and collaborative interagency approach could have prevented the children’s disappearance the second time and brought them back sooner,” Upston said.
The government’s news release acknowledged the work done thus far:
The government expressed concerns regarding safeguarding the privacy and welfare of the Phillips children.
“They are the most important people in this,” Upston said. “Their interests must come first.”
“The Privacy Act does not stand in the way of protecting children from harm,” said Michael Webster, New Zealand’s privacy commissioner, in a news release from the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC). “A child’s safety and wellbeing come first.”
According to the privacy commissioner, the inquiry shed light on government departments’ failure to share key information.
“The law is clear for child welfare and protection agencies or individuals such as health practitioners or children’s workers; there is no legislative barrier to information sharing where there are wellbeing or safety concerns for a child,” Webster said.
In its detailed guidance, the OPC clarified that child welfare and protection agencies can legally share information while also respecting children’s and young people’s privacy.
“People working with children should know they can share information about risks to a child's wellbeing or safety with other agencies or people who can help keep that child safe,” Webster said. “The value of the Privacy Act is to help agencies keep that information safe, not to prevent agencies from sharing it when they need to.”
Here are some other recent news stories involving New Zealand’s privacy commissioner.
On 28 August 2026, Webster expressed privacy-related concerns regarding the use of smart glasses in New Zealand and set expectations for those utilising the technology in a personal capacity or in the work context.
In connection with the December 2025 Manage My Health cyber incident, Webster released on 27 May 2026 the results of his independent inquiry’s first phase, focusing on what caused the cybersecurity breach and who was accountable.
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