Green Party to defend human rights against Government attack

The Green Party will be holding to its principles and defending New Zealanders’ human rights by opposing the Government’s proposals to extend spy surveillance and cancel passports.

“No Government can be fully trusted not to abuse the powers this legislation gives its spy agencies,” said Green Party security and intelligence spokesperson, Dr Kennedy Graham.

“Some minor concessions to bad law are not sufficient for the Greens to shift our position or surrender our principles, so we will be voting against.

“National has not made the case for these changes and they give too much power to the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), an agency that has recently been criticised by the independent Inspector-General for failure to act within the law.

“This National Government already has a track record of using SIS information for political purposes; this legislation gives it more powers to utilise against those they might disagree with.

“The fact of the matter is warrantless surveillance is warrantless surveillance. Whether it is for 48 hours or 24 hours makes no substantive difference; it is still a back door for otherwise illegal spying.

“We are worried that these laws could be used against legitimate protest groups in New Zealand.

“The African National Congress was described by Ministers in the National Government of the time, as a terrorist organisation during the 1981 Springbok tour. It shows how absurd this law is that, under it, New Zealanders supporting human rights for black South Africans back then could have been spied on for supporting a terrorist organisation.

“The same is true for Sri Lankan Tamils. The Tamil Tigers were not considered a terrorist organisation in New Zealand, but were in Sri Lanka. Many New Zealand based Tamils legitimately supported the Tamil independence movement, but would have been caught out by this law, including having their passports removed.

“The Green Party is concerned that too many powers and not enough oversight is being given to the SIS, including the ability for a Government to undertake unwarranted surveillance on political or civil opposition for 24 hours. There is nothing in this law to stop them from doing so, beyond retroactive oversight.

“Our law should be written to protect our rights and democracy, not erode them. It should contain decent checks and balances on possible abuses by bad or inept Governments, and this law fails to do so.

“The Green Party is standing with the overwhelming majority of submitters who raised serious concerns with this legislation, and with those who may be subject to abuses under it,” said Dr Graham.

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