MPs will get more time on terror bill

8 Nov, 2001 12:31 PM4 mins to read

By AUDREY YOUNG, Political Reporter

Anti-terrorism measures will be rushed through Parliament within the month in response to the September 11 atrocities in the United States.

The move will allow the assets of about 40 terrorist individuals, organisations and their supporters to be frozen if they are discovered in New Zealand.

But the order will be by temporary regulation, giving a breathing space for Parliament to consider more properly a bill that was to be rushed through the House after in-camera hearings.

It will also allow New Zealand to go to a report-back session at the United Nations on December 27 with specific measures it has taken.

The temporary regulations come after a Government climbdown yesterday, when it abandoned plans to hear selective submissions on the bill behind closed doors.

The process will be slowed and opened to public scrutiny.

The Terrorism (Bombings and Financing) Bill had been before the foreign affairs and defence select committee for months but was substantially strengthened after September 11.

Clauses were added to freeze the assets of terrorists and anybody supporting them, and to make recruitment a crime.

The revised bill contains a definition of terrorism. It will also have an exclusion clause specifying who it does not intend to cover.

Designated terrorist groups or individuals will be able to challenge their status, not through the courts but through the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

Just nine organisations were selected to make private submissions on the contentious changes to the bill: the Council of Trade Unions, Business NZ, the Law Society, Law Commission, the Auckland and NZ Councils for Civil Liberties, Amnesty International, the Bankers Association and Institute of Chartered Accountants.

To allow the bill to be rushed through Parliament by Christmas, the submitters were to have little more than a week to present their views. The civil liberties groups, unions and the Green Party pressed the Government to back down.

The public will now be invited to make submissions in the next three weeks and the select committee has until March to report to Parliament.

Green MP Keith Locke said the reversal was "a victory for democracy. The public will bring some fresh air into legislation stifled by secrecy".

Auckland Council for Civil Liberties executive member Graeme Minchin, whose organisation had been considering boycotting any call for confidential submissions, congratulated the Government "for having faith in the democratic process".

The cabinet will use powers under the United Nations Act 1946 to invoke the regulations against terrorist organisations.

It has used its powers before. In March it passed regulations freezing any funds in New Zealand of the Taleban, al Qaeda and more than 20 linked groups. None has been found.

Justice Minister Phil Goff said he was aware of controversy over the definition of a terrorist but said common sense would have to be applied.

The list of terrorist groups under the temporary regulations would number about 40 and be based on a list the Canadians compiled after September 11.

It would be broadened after the law was passed.

Mr Goff did not think either list would include any organisation in New Zealand.

"There is no organisation I can think, maybe apart from the French security service, that met that definition," he said, referring to the Rainbow Warrior bombing by French agents in 1985.

"The 99.9 per cent chance is that they will be international organisations.

"In the end, you have got to rely on an element of common sense.

"The guy who tried to cut down [the tree on] One Tree Hill [Mike Smith] is not an international terrorist ... and we're not about to seize his bank account for that action."

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