Keith Locke, Helen Kelly and Nicky Hager will be joining forces in Wellington on Tuesday, 1st 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 18th 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.”
In his announcement of the Bill, Key said the new law needs to be passed early this year, so the changes are in place for the 2011 Rugby World Cup.
“It's just a pre-text,” said Anna. “This Bill is nothing but another piece of repressive security legislation that will be pushed quietly through Parliament as we follow our down-ward spiral to becoming a fully-surveilled society.”
A list of recent security legislation includes: the Terrorism Suppression Act (2002) and its various amendments, the Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Act (2003), the Government Communications Security Bureau Act (2003), the Identity (Citizenship and Travel Documents) Bill (2004), the Anti-Money Laundering and Countering Financing of Terrorism Act (2009), the Search and Surveillance Bill (2009), the Immigration Act (2009), the Criminal Investigations (Bodily Samples) Amendment Bill (2009), and the Identity Information Confirmation Bill (2010).
Before the Rugby World Cup, Key hopes that the SIS Amendment Bill will be added to this list.
“What we need is not strengthening of state powers of repression,” said Anna. “The Bill will be used to further harass and build files on people from the refugee community, target unions, anyone opposed to the government, and to spy on individuals or groups that NZ's allies and big business ask of the SIS.
“It's time we started to consider where this this constant paranoia and surveillance are taking us. A paranoia that can be seen firsthand in Keith's SIS file. And a surveillance system which Nicky has written extensively about. Helen speaks from the perspective of the Unions.
“We hope that as more people become aware of the steady chipping away of so-called civil liberties that is occurring in this country, they will stand up and demand a halt to the expansion of surveillance.
The meeting will be held at St Josephs at 7pm on Tuesday, 1st February.
