Beehive staff to lose camera phones

Cellphones with cameras are causing such security concerns at Parliament that they are being removed from ministers' offices.

Ministers and their staff used to be issued with camera cellphones. While ministers will keep theirs, Ministerial Services, which is part of the Department of Internal Affairs, will no longer issue them to about 200 staff.

And if Beehive staff wish to carry private cellphones with cameras, their names will be registered with the relevant minister's private secretary.

Internal Affairs spokesman Colin Feslier said last night that changes to cellphone use had been instigated before sacked Beehive messenger Michael Ryan leaked a commercially sensitive Budget document.

He believed the measure had more to do with preventing images of the Beehive interior, perhaps revealing a security feature, being relayed by cellphone than with concerns about copying sensitive documents.

"As we replace any phones that we ourselves have issued, we are replacing any that have camera functions with those that don't," Mr Feslier said.

"We are also asking Government departments that second staff [to ministers' officers] not to dispatch staff with them.

"The question is, if you have got something that has got a recording function, is there a good reason for it?"

The move comes amid other security measures unveiled at Parliament yesterday in the third and final phase of the Beehive refurbishment.

A new main entrance for the public has been created and visitors will now have to pass through a metal detector before being allowed in - although they will not have their camera cellphones confiscated.

The entrance has been moved further away from the building to make it less of a target for car bombs.

Another entrance and bomb-resistant mail room has been created at the rear of Parliament Buildings, with a special x-ray machine through which all letters and parcels must now pass.

Cabinet ministers yesterday returned to their refurbished and completely sound-proofed ministerial dining room in the Beehive, part of the $24.5 million plus GST upgrade.

Other features of the work include an upgrade of the swimming pool and gymnasium, new kitchens for Bellamy's and a refurbished Banquet Hall.