Broadsides: Police surveillance bill

JACINDA ARDERN

You know that an issue is particularly difficult when a Minister calls an opposition spokesperson to pre-brief them on a bill that’s yet to come before Parliament. That’s exactly what happened several weeks ago when it became clear, via the Urewera raids case, that we had a severe problem with our search and surveillance laws and practices in New Zealand.

This should not have come as a surprise to anyone in Parliament. A bill modernising Search and Surveillance practices in New Zealand was introduced back in 2009 because it was clear (and because the law commission told us) that the law needed to be updated significantly. Not only did the old law neglect to take into account the new technology available, used particularly within organised crime, it didn’t clearly define who could and couldn’t use surveillance powers. (more on nzherald.co.nz)

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/politics/news/article.cfm?c_id=280&objectid=10758572