MP rails against e-spy bill

By MICHAEL FOREMAN

Green MP Keith Locke wants to enlist the support of internet service providers (ISPs) in a campaign against the proposed Crimes Amendment Bill.

Mr Locke said he was aware of disquiet among ISPs over the bill, which would give the police and the security services wide-ranging powers to intercept electronic communications.

But Mr Locke, speaking at an Auckland meeting last week to protest against the bill, did not fully endorse a call by one member of the audience for a strike by internet workers.

"I'd be in favour of net people resisting in various ways a bit further down the track.

"Hopefully, before it gets to that stage, ISPs will be able to make it known to the Government that the act would have to be implemented without their cooperation."

Mr Locke said the internet itself could be used against the bill, if the public lobbied their MPs by e-mail. "If we do have a campaign I think we can succeed. There's no groundswell of opinion in New Zealand for these powers to be granted.

"It wasn't driven by the New Zealand domestic scene - overseas security services like the FBI and MI5 have told the SIS 'we've done it here so you should do it there."'

Mr Locke said the Green Party would vote against the bill unless it was split into two parts that dealt with computer crimes and internet surveillance separately.

In that case the Green Party would vote for the former but not the latter.

Mr Locke said some Act MPs were against the bill and he hoped to persuade some Labour-Alliance members to change their minds.

The Government was inhibiting democratic discussion of the issue by not discussing how the surveillance would be achieved at the same time as surveillance powers were extended, Mr Locke said.

"They'll bring in the how question in another bill, as an amendment to the Telecommunications Act. They are trying to get the people of New Zealand to believe it's just an extension of existing telephone tapping.

"People think, 'this won't be targeting me,' but the scale of surveillance that would be possible would mean that anyone who contacted a targeted person would themselves become a target."

Mr Locke said the bill could breach of the right to free speech as people would start to monitor their e-mails very carefully to ensure nothing they wrote could be misread.

Tim McBride, the chairman of the Auckland Council for Civil Liberties, said New Zealand needed a comprehensive review of all existing interception powers before new powers were granted.

He described the bill as a quantum leap against the right to privacy rather than just another another rung up the ladder.

"A single interception warrant would give authorities access to a much larger amount of personal information - with e-mails, attachments and files, it's whole different ballgame."

Alan Marston, the managing director of Auckland based ISP PlaNet, said the proposed surveillance would immediately intrude on ISPs as well as the public.

"Internet communications are very difficult to intercept unless you get right up to the end and tap there.

"That means tapping into routers and servers ... owned by people like me.

"The act would be a direct interference into a private business."

Mr Marsden said the authorities were likely to install interception devices at the larger ISPs, causing customers to move to smaller ISPs whose servers were not tapped.

That shift could happen on an international scale, to New Zealand's detriment.

"Maybe Tonga would set itself up as a surveillance-free zone."

Links


Crimes Amendment Bill No 6

PlaNet

Green Party