Search and Surveillance Bill Passed

The Search and Surveillance Bill was passed on 22nd March. Now it just needs rubber stamping before it becomes law.

When this Bill becomes law, the range of opportunities for legal surveillance available to police and various State agencies increases dramatically. That also means, the 'illegal' activities that those same forces do, shift laterally and also widen.

When this is law, there will be a lot more warrant-less searches and surveillance and warrant-less use of spies, or HIDs - Human Intervention Devices. Road blocks like those seen on 15th October in Ruatoki could become the norm, and increasing use of detention on mere belief that a 'crime' may be committed.

The right to silence and the right not to self-incriminate are also attacked under this law.

March 22nd was not a good day in history. Let's hope that somehow this Bill is never rubber-stamped.

S&S Bill May Be Decided Tuesday 20th March

The Search and Surveillance Bill most probably comes out of Committee on Tuesday 20th March. It will then be voted on and could be law by April 18th.

It will be a sad day.

Search and Surveillance Bill to be Law by April

Judith Collins, Minister of Justice, has announced that she intends that the Search and Surveillance Bill is law by mid-April this year.

Mid-April is when the 'temporary Video Surveillance law' expires. That is the law rushed through parliament to retrospectively legalise illegal police action. An action described by many lawyers as 'abhorrent' and even 'repulsive' and not needed. It is (or was) already law then, that any evidence gathered (whether legally or illegally) can be presented in court under the Evidence Act, at the discretion of the court, depending on the seriousness of the evidence.

New Zealand is one of the only lands where law can be changed retrospectively on the whims of government.

Once the Search and Surveillance Bill becomes law, we will be even more on the road to becoming one of the most heavily surveilled countries in the world.

There will also be fundamental changes to 'law and order' - the right to silence will be gone, as will the right to not incriminate oneself. And the law has a catch-22 phrase to legalise all future surveillance developments before they have developed.

This Act, hand-in-hand with other law changes going on, mean so-called 'rights' such as the right to a jury trial, the right to be present for your own court case, are being written out of law.

The Search and Surveillance Bill needs to be stopped now.

Video Bill Passed

The Video Surveillance Bill is law. It was passed on October 6th, 2011.

The Bill makes it explicitly lawful for government agencies to use covert video surveillance under a warrant for private property. In plain language, it legalises police breaking the law and planting secret surveillance cameras inside peoples' homes.

The bill has retrospective effect, ensuring that all video footage can be used as evidence and that previous convictions that relied on video evidence are not open to appeal.

Another law, the Private Investigators and Security Guards Act, was updated in April. It allows private security to install video cameras to assist their work, however they are still unable to legally record in a private residence but that allows, for now, video surveillance and records made in all other areas.

This is in contrast to Germany which bans companies from spying on employees, and they are even banned from checking out employees on Facebook and other social networking sites.

Urgent Action Alert – Stop the Video Camera Surveillance Bill!

It is only days now until Parliament votes on the law that would legalise covert video surveillance by Police, Fisheries, SIS and Customs. This bill must be stopped! It is the most serious assault on our fundamental freedom and rights in our lifetime. As it stands, no warrant is even required to conduct video surveillance.

We are asking everyone to take two minutes to email members of Parliament who have not decided which way to vote and tell them to vote ‘NO’ on the bill. It is likely to be voted on this Thursday (October 6). At present, the National party does not have the numbers to pass the bill. It only has the support of United Future. It needs 3 more votes – so we want to make sure that neither the Labour Party nor the ACT party support this dangerous bill from becoming  law. The Green, Maori and Mana parties do not support the bill at all.

Please email any member of parliament you like. We would certainly encourage in particular emails to:

ACT party
Rodney Hide – rodney.hide@parliament.govt.nz
John Boscawen – john.boscawen@parliament.govt.nz
Roger Douglas – roger.douglas@parliament.govt.nz
Hilary Calvert – hilary.calvert@parliament.govt.nz
Heather Roy – heather.roy@parliament.govt.nz

LABOUR
Phil Goff – phil.goff@parliament.govt.nz
Annette King – annette.king@parliament.govt.nz
David Parker – david.parker@parliament.govt.nz
Charles Chauvel – charles.chauvel@parliament.govt.nz
Grant Robertson – grant.robertson@parliament.govt.nz
David Cunliffe – david.cunliffe@parliament.govt.nz
Ruth Dyson – ruth.dyson@parliament.govt.nz
Clayton Cosgrove – clayton.cosgrove@parliament.govt.nz
Maryan Street – maryan.street@parliament.govt.nz
Trevor Mallard – trevor.mallard@parliament.govt.nz

The most important thing to say is:

‘VOTE NO ON THE VIDEO SURVEILLANCE BILL’.

Other things you can say are:

• It is an assault on the rule of law as it retrospectively legalises illegal police actions

• It is an assault on the right to be free from unreasonable search and seizure

• It is an assault on the right to privacy

• You don’t want any expansion of the power of the state to surveil people

The police and government have been misleading the public by saying that the bill will ‘restore the common law position’ - the police have never had the power to do trespassory video surveillance. The police knowingly broke the law and should be prosecuted.

The ONLY submission received in support of this law was from Police. All other submissions – including the Law Society, Criminal Bar, civil society organisations and hundred of individuals all opposed this bill.

SIS Bill Passed

A sad day, on 5 July the SIS Bill became law. It was passed on a vote of 107-10 votes. Unchanged despite calls from groups such as the NZ Human Rights Commission to amend it.

OASIS - Submissions Against SIS Amendment Bill

Submission on the Security Intelligence Amendment Bill close Friday, 18 February.

Normally submissions to select committees are heard in public, but because this Bill will be heard before the Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC), chaired by John Key, submissions will be be heard in secrecy. So if you do a submission, demand to be heard in public.

SIS Amendments - “We Do Not Need to Know.”

Keith Locke, Helen Kelly and Nicky Hager will be joining forces in Wellington on Tuesday, 1^st February, to discuss the expanded powers of the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) that will be rushed through Parliament in the coming month.

John Key introduced the SIS Amendment Bill in the House just before Parliament broke up for summer. Submissions close on 18^th February.

“It gives little time for public discussion, but that's what Key prefers,” said Anna Cocker from OASIS, the group organising the meeting. “Key wants secrecy about this Bill. He does not want public scrutiny of it.”

The History of the Search and Surveillance Bill

In 2002 Labour said that police powers of search and surveillance were a mess. 

They argued that law and order hadn’t kept pace with technology and that police powers were based on statutes between 40 and 50 years old. The Law Commission was ordered to recommend changes.