Petition addressed to: NZTA, the Government

Online (and all other digital) identity verification should work with all legally issued identity documents – specifically NZ driving licences, which are commonly used as primary ID. In countries such as Malaysia, passports record the full legal name in a single field rather than separating first and last names. As a result, the New Zealand Transport Agency(NZTA) licence’s record stores the entire name in the surname field and leaves the first name blank.

Most online verification systems require users to enter both a first and last name. However, due to the reasons described above, we are unable to complete verification. The NZ driver licence is intended to serve as proof of identity and to facilitate access to services, yet because of this system design we are unable to do even simple things such as applying for Wi-Fi, as providers tell us that verification must be completed online and they cannot assist otherwise.

We strongly request greater transparency and system compatibility from government and service providers. Online verification systems should accommodate legally valid identity formats or provide alternative manual verification pathways so that residents with NZ driving licences can complete identity checks and access essential services.