NZ Spooks Bill

Govt struggling to get support for GCSB bill

Radio NZ,

24 June, 2013

The Government is struggling to convince United Future and New Zealand First to support its plan to extend the powers of the country's electronic spy agency.

United Future leader Peter Dunne says the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) should stick to spying on foreigners.

Mr Dunne said he is worried about the blurringof the boundaries between the GCSB and the Security Intelligence Service, which is responsible for internal security.

"I think that boundary needs to be clear and I don't think the GCSB should under any circumstances have a role in any form of domestic security operation."

Mr Dunne says he will decide whether to support the legislation based on what changes are made before it is referred back to Parliament.

New Zealand First leader Winston Peters is more sympathetic to the legislation, but says not enough work has been done on the plan to ensure that the country has proper workable security measures to defend the security of New Zealanders.

Despite the Government likely to need New Zealand First's support to get the bill through Parliament, it has made no approach to the party about discussing changes that would make the legislation more acceptable.

In a submission on the bill, the New Zealand Law Society says the GCSB will be changed from being a foreign intelligence agency to a mixed foreign and domestic agency with the power to spy on New Zealand citizens and residents in a way not previously contemplated.

The society told the Intelligence and Security select committee at Parliament on Monday there is no clear justification for the proposed changes. It says it is inconsistent with freedom of speech and freedom from unreasonable search and seizure guaranteed under the Bill of Rights.

Prime Minister John Key argues that the bill simply clarifies what the GCSB already does, but the Law Society does not accept that.

"I do not believe it expands the mandate of the GCSB; I think what it does do is clarifies fully in the law what has been the historical behaviour of GCSB under what they believed was their legal authority.

"And the bottom line is, that because of difficulties in interpretation in the law, we need to clarify that law, but this is something that has been going on for a very long period of time under previous governments."

Labour Party leader David Shearer says if his party leads the Government after the 2014 election it will initiate a wide ranging review of the country's intelligence services.

These are the pertinent comments from the NZ Law Society

GCSB Downloaded Its Version Of The GCSB Bill From The Daily Blog 

The Daily Blog,

23 June, 2013

The New Zealand Herald’s David Fisher has revealed a smoke n dagger mystery on Twitter.

It does appear the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) downloaded its copy of the GCSB draft legislation from The Daily Blog website.

When you do a Google search for the GCSB bill, the official copy that you can download from the GCSB contains meta-data that suggests it was actually sourced and downloaded by the GCSB from TheDailyBlog.co.nz.

This weirdism was picked up by David Fisher on Saturday evening and put out on his Twitter account: @DFisherJourno.

Now, I must confess… I uploaded to The Daily Blog database in May what has now become the GCSB’s official version of the legislation. (check out this Google search of this content on The Daily Blog.)

I did this after the draft bill was officially released by the New Zealand Parliament. Sometime since then, it appears the GCSB needed to locate a copy for its official website, and downloaded this from The Daily Blog. Once the GCSB officer downloaded it, he/she then uploaded it to the GCSB.

I do realise The Daily Blog is a most excellent source of information and analysis, but I never realised the GCSB had become so dependent on us as a source of official information!

To think what might have become of the proposed new legislation if I had realised this sooner. Imagine how brilliant the Parliamentary debate would have been if I had rewritten the draft into something more agreeable prior to the GCSB downloading an amended brave new version!!

Just think, a complete rewrite of the intelligence parameters within which the GCSB could operate, new robust oversight frameworks where our electronic spy agency would be held to account… The list of satisfactory reform would be comparatively brief but certainly designed to meet both the National and Public Interest 

Lost opportunities aside, as the mystery deepens, we at The Daily Blog are left wondering:

• Did the GCSB lose its original copy?
• Why did the GCSB download a copy from The Daily Blog and not from the New Zealand Parliament site?
• Was the GCSB trying to send us a message? If so, please decrypt it for us as I was never too flash on code… even cryptic crosswords prove to be beyond me! 

Perhaps The Daily Blog’s excellent audience can decipher how or why this happened…

Law Society slams spy agency Bill

NZ Herald,

24 June, 2013

The Law Society has made a stinging attack on proposed law changes governing the GCSB spy agency, saying they effectively transform it from a foreign intelligence agency to a domestic one without any justification being given.

InternetNZ has also raised serious concerns about the bill before Parliament, saying its powers are too broad.

Submissions on the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Bill closed on Friday, and hearings on it will begin early next month.

The Law Society submission, written by Rodney Harrison, QC, says: "It is difficult to identify the pressing and substantial concerns that the bill purports to remedy or address."

The society recognised the critical role intelligence gathering played in ensuring the security of New Zealand but "extensive and pervasive amendments to the state's power of surveillance should not be passed by Parliament lightly nor without the fullest extent of debate possible. The Law Society does not consider that sufficient justification has been provided for the proposed reforms".

The bill allows for greater spying by the agency on New Zealanders in its beefed-up role in cyber security of both government and private sectors.

It lets the GCSB spy on Kiwis when it is helping agencies such as the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) and the police to perform authorised surveillance activities.

But it also gives the GCSB legal authority to do anything the entity it is helping is legally authorised to do.

Dr Harrison says that could give a protected legal status to some activities that might not otherwise receive it. "This outcome is unacceptable and inconsistent with the rule of law."

He says the bill effectively transforms the GCSB from a foreign intelligence-gathering agency into an additional domestic spy agency.

"It seems that the underlying objective of the legislation is to give the GCSB powers it lacked previously: the power to conduct surveillance on New Zealand citizens and residents. No explanation or justification for the conferral of this power is given."

InternetNZ's submission, in the name of acting director Jordan Carter, says it supports the provisions of the bill that address cyber security of NZ's information infrastructure.

But it questions whether such a function should be housed alongside an intelligence operation.

It proposes compartmentalising the agency's operations to increase public confidence in the cyber security function.

The submission says the legislation lacks sufficient clarity about the circumstances in which the communications of New Zealanders will be gathered.

"A broad reading renders the sum effect of the bill, as currently drafted, as providing access to anyone's communications whether live or stored, including internet communications."

It says that although the ability of governments to collect communications and metadata has advanced under the internet, human rights such as privacy are treated as less important online than off.