US embassy cable - 05WELLINGTON130

UNCLAS WELLINGTON 000130 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR EAP/ANP, CA 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: CMGT, PREL, NZ 
SUBJECT: NEW ZEALAND UPDATE ON E-PASSPORT AND VWP QUESTIONS 
 
REF: STATE 23029 
 
1. (U) Post passed information contained reftel to David 
Philp, Manager, Passports, New Zealand Department of Internal 
Affairs (DIA.) Philp reported that while he is the Project 
Sponsor, the e-Passport Project Manager is Brian Greenough, 
DIA.  He added that the project steering committee is in 
place, but the time line is still being negotiated with the 
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS.)  He noted that 
the GoNZ is provisionally considering a live trial at LAX 
using Air Crew in June 2005. 
 
2. (U) Philp provided the following detailed answers to 
reftel questions: 
 
Begin text. 
 
1. "The process for awarding contracts and dates certain to 
produce ICAO compliant passports as well as date for full 
production"; 
 
DIA Response:  New Zealand has completed all contract 
negotiations and has entered into supply contracts for the 
enhancement to existing passport issuance systems to 
incorporate functions required to support e-Passport 
personalisation.  Hewlett-Packard have been selected as the 
lead contractor of a consortium including Entrust (PKI) and 
Iris Malaysia (RF Readers/chip encoding) to carry out this 
work. Canadian Bank Note has been awarded the contract for 
the supply of the e-Passport book. 
 
New Zealand will begin a phased roll-out of the e-Passport 
from early in the 3rd quarter of 2005 calendar year subject 
to US Department of Homeland Security acceptance and 
certification of the NZ e-Passport, and a suitable point of 
entry trial with the NZ e-Passport at a US border.  Full 
production will be achieved prior to October 2005 however the 
exact date will be determined by the level of application 
demand coupled with our desire the minimise wastage of 
existing passport book stock. 
 
2. "any possible legal obstacles to manufacturing ICAO 
compliant passports"; 
 
DIA Response: We are not aware of any legal issues specific 
to New Zealand constraining the New Zealand implementation of 
an ICAO compliant e-Passport  e-Passports will be issued to 
all applicants regardless of age.  We currently have 
legislation before Parliament that reduces the maximum 
validity of a passport from ten to five years and removes the 
provision to allow name endorsements in passports.  (Note: 
Legal name changes would now require a new passport.)  This 
is expected to come into force prior to the first issuance of 
e-Passports however it would have little material impact if 
it did not. 
 
3. "any technical obstacles to manufacturing ICAO  compliant 
passports"; 
 
DIA Response: NZ has undergone a lengthy e-Passport 
development process. Although technical issues have arisen, 
these have been resolved and we are not aware of any further 
issues constraining the New Zealand implementation of an ICAO 
compliant e-Passport 
 
4. "a description of how the proposed passport process meets 
the security standards recommended by ICAO"; 
 
DIA Response: The New Zealand e-Passport will meet the 
mandatory security requirements for Passive Authentication 
required by ICAO as detailed in the PKI Technical Report. 
This is in order to: 
 
-- Facilitate passenger processing by providing for a closed 
book read approach with minimum chip processing time, 
-- Ensure interoperability with other nations wishing to read 
the NZ e-Passport, 
-- Minimise the complexity of the technology used to issue an 
e-Passport. 
 
The New Zealand e-Passport PKI deployment will utilise 
SHA-256 hashing algorithm and a 2048kb signing key size. 
 
5. "a certification that the chips meet the ISO 14443 
communications standard for interoperability"; 
 
DIA Response:  The New Zealand e-Passport will contain a 72kb 
Philips SmartMX Type A chip. The chip is manufactured to the 
ISO 14443-A standard, which was defined by Philips. 
 
End text. 
Swindells