Mr Little said Labour recognised there was a new threat and gave National support to pass the bill, but with changes. Labour insisted on reducing warrantless surveillance by the SIS from 48 hours to 24 hours, limiting the scope of the bill solely to activities related to terrorism, improving reporting on warrantless surveillance and changing the expiry date of its provisions from 2018 to 2017, well after a review of all security legislation to begin next year.
New Zealand First opposed the bill. Mr Peters said the crime of sedition was needed and his party was the only one to oppose its abolition from the Crimes Act in 2007.
He acknowledged the security law would be reviewed next year "and in the meantime we are asked to cry havoc and let loose the dogs of Nazism".
One of the big concerns expressed about the bill was the lack of distinction between accepted freedom fighters and terrorists groups.
SIS Minister Chris Finlayson told Labour's David Shearer that the legal position of Kurds in New Zealand wanting to go back to Kurdistan to fight in defence of their village would be unchanged by the foreign fighters legislation.
But he stopped short of saying that they would be exempt.
"This legislation does not change the existing legal situation of a person in that position," Mr Finlayson said.
Mr Finlayson said people would be targeted by their behaviour or intended behaviour.
He told the Green Party that environmental protesters would not be caught by definitions of terrorist acts.
The bill was debated under urgency last night after being introduced last week and having had three days of select committee hearings.
The Government wanted it passed before the World Cricket Cup tournament begins in New Zealand in February.
It temporarily amends three existing acts - the NZ Security Intelligence Service Act 1969 which will give the SIS more surveillance powers; the Customs and Excise Act 1996 which will give the SIS access to the Customs database in relation to suspected terrorism; and the Passports Act 1992, which will allow the Internal Affairs Minister to suspend passports for 10 days and cancel them for up to three years.
What the bill does
It will amend three existing acts to expand the powers of the SIS and passport control to monitor and stop residents in New Zealand from joining or helping overseas terrorist groups, known as foreign fighters, or committing terrorist acts in New Zealand.
Definition of a foreign fighter
There isn't one because it is based on actions defined as terrorism set out in the Suppression of Terrorism Act 2002. Under the act, an act of terrorism is carried out for the purpose of advancing an ideological, political or religious cause with the intention of inducing terror or to unduly compel a government or international agency to do or abstain from doing any act of which the outcome is one or more of the following: death or serious injury; serious risk to the population; destruction or serious damage to property likely to endanger human life or safety; interference with infrastructure likely to endanger human life.
