Labour support for urgent surveillance bill shaky

Labour could slow down an urgent law change designed to allow police to film secretly on private property. File photo / Thinkstock

An urgent law change to allow police to film secretly on private property could be slowed up by Labour, which says it will not support the legislation unless it goes through proper process.

Prime Minister John Key yesterday announced plans to pass "patch" legislation to authorise police use of covert video surveillance.

The measure would suspend the effect of a Supreme Court decision last week that ruled police surveillance on Maori land in the Ureweras was unlawfully obtained.

Crown Law had advised Cabinet it meant almost all use of covert video surveillance was unlawful, and could affect up to 40 trials already underway and 50 police operations.

Mr Key said it was essential to move quickly, and the bill would be passed under urgency next week as long as other parties supported it.

Labour leader Phil Goff said he had not yet seen the bill, and Labour's support would be conditional on the process the bill went through.

"If there's to be legislation, it has got to go through some sort of select committee process," Mr Goff told reporters this morning.

"It might be a shortened process, but I've seen too much of urgency in this house where Parliament rushes stuff through, doesn't think it through, creates more problems than it solves, so let's do it properly.

"It needs to have expert opinion, we need to have the Law Commission, we need to have the Law Society, we need to have the other players in this game able to comment on it."

However, Mr Goff agreed the problem did need to be fixed.

"Labour's not about to let drug traffickers and other criminals get out of jail because of inadequacy of the law."

The Maori Party has already said it will not support the bill, with MP Te Ururoa Flavell calling the Government's move a "panic reaction".

"The facts of this matter seem unequivocal - the court has decided that the use of video surveillance is unlawful in the absence of prior judicial authorisation. Because there was no legislative authority the police should not have acted the way they did," he said.

"Two wrongs do not a right make. There is no way the Maori Party will support after-the-fact legislative change to make the unlawful lawful."

The Green Party also indicated it would not support the bill, while Act was to discuss the matter today.

The bill would be a temporary patch until the Search and Surveillance Bill was passed next term.