Thursday, August 08, 2013



The spy bill: More amendments

John Key's spy bill is back for more of its committee stage today - and some more amendments have emerged. Here's what they do:

  • SOP 318 (Russel Norman): extends the prohibition on domestic spying to all GCSB functions.
  • SOP 320 (Russel Norman): focuses the intelligence gathering and analysis function strictly on external threats and limits information sharing to New Zealand entities
  • SOP 321 (Russel Norman): limits use of "incidentally obtained intelligence" to cases where there is a clear and present security threat
  • SOP 322 (Russel Norman): repeals existing warrentless interception powers
  • SOP 327 (Brendan Horan): strengthens oversight provisions in the "statement of principles" and makes it legally binding upon the GCSB and its staff
  • SOP 328 (Russel Norman): amends Peter Dunne's SOP 308 to require reporting of the number of people affected by interception warrants.
Again, Labour really is leaving it to the Greens to lead on this. I guess for all Grant Robertson's rhetorical fury, they don't really care about our privacy.

My analysis of past amendments can be found here.