Green MP Keith Locke
said:
The
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill is one of the worst bills to pass through this
Parliament. It is being rushed through completely unnecessarily and is a
retrospective bill that legalises illegal behaviour by the police and
other agencies. This Parliament is here to make laws, and people are
punished for breaking those laws. In this case we are doing the very
opposite.
It is important to know that this legislation is not just about the
police; it is about other State agencies that have search powers as
well. We have found that the police have been breaking the law by
engaging in covert video surveillance without authority.
Rather than bringing the police to account or some sort of punishment,
what are we doing? We are passing a law in a rush to make that illegal
behaviour legal, affecting time way back to when video cameras were
invented—there is no start date to this bill—and for a year into the
future. I think the essence of this is that we are overriding one of the
most important laws on our statute book—that is, the New Zealand Bill
of Rights Act. Section 21 protects the public from unreasonable search
and seizure by State agencies, including unreasonable surveillance.
Idiot Savant at NRT
reported:
The Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill
has just passed its third reading. The final stages of the debate were
pushed through under urgency, and took all of two hours. There were
strong speeches by Keith Locke, Rahui Katene and Hone Harawira in
defence of civil liberties - and a lot of excuses from Labour about why
they were voting for it. While the debate was going on, I took the
opportunity to read through all the submissions on the bill.
There were 438 submissions - and only 6 in favour. So, we have a
government of the 1.5%, stomping on the human rights of the rest of us.
98.5% of the 438 submissions were against the
Video Camera Surveillance (Temporary Measures) Bill, and it still passes? It appears that New Zealand is run by a defunct undemocratic system with no proper representation for or acknowledgement of the people.
