New Zealand's GCSB spying bill becomes law | Hacker News Reader

New Zealand's GCSB spying bill becomes law

3news.co.nz

95 pointswlj18 comments

What's the difference between New Zealand and USA / UK / Australia? New Zealand at least has the balls or insanity to pass laws to cover the domestic spying, instead of doing it and denying it.

From my opinion, the most concerning thing about this is that NZ has typically distanced itself from the US, and that appears to be changing.

Sure, we were always part of the five-eyes, but only within the last couple of years has NZ been so warmly welcomed into the whitehouse, and the co-operation with the Dotcom fiasco scared a lot of people as well.

The passing of this law is largely a knee-jerk reaction to the fact that the GCSB have been doing this all along but got caught out, so rushed it through parliament.

These changes align far too much with US agenda's, the revelation of prism, etc.

I take your point that at least they're acknowledging that they're going to be doing it, but it's just a horrible gut feeling about the future.

To be honest, the distancing was only because of nuclear powered ships (NZ being proudly nuclear free and refusing US ships right to take harbour in the country cost us the ANZUS alliance). Unfortunately it only took a new threat (cyberterrorism) to get us back in again. restrains self from saying something about John Key

yeah for sure - and the nuclear ships situation was something that, in my opinion, gave many kiwis a tiny sense of identity and freedom; politely declining a Friend Request from the biggest superpower in the world because we're not prepared to compromise on what we believe in.

Is that changing?

What do you mean by "instead of"? Is there any reason to think that it wasn't happening before?

They were caught, so they're making it 'legal'. Key still told a bunch of lies to sell it. It is more dignified than continuing to deny and stonewall, but only by a tiny degree.

That may be so but they're very capable of misleading / attempting to confuse the public on the issue too. The prime minister, John Key, actually publicly likened the bill to Norton Anti Virus on multiple occasions [1] [2]

[1] http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Key-walks-out-of-press-conferen...

[2] http://www.3news.co.nz/Key-NZers-care-more-about-snapper-tha...

I'm sure anti virus makers will be happy about the lowering of sales in the NZ marketplace....and the increase in virus proliferation soon afterwards. Could the government get sued for that? :D

So if you don't renew it every year, it nags you relentlessly?

McAfee Anti-Virus more like, ha! Helping prevent trillions of dollars worth of terrorists damage!

Moreover this bill actually requires a warrant to be issued for each individual that is to be spied upon. Public interest is supposedly demonstrated through evidence that the motive is "protection" not "spying".

It's not ideal by any means, but does seem to be better than in Australia / UK and the US where there is no legal oversight and no public discussion.

There are many loopholes in the law. For example, the law permits the GCSB to retain any communication that is "incidentally obtained", and to pass that communication to the police, all without a warrant.

It's my understanding that warrants can be issued not just for individuals but "classes" of people—and those warrants are issued not by the judiciary ,but by the PM himself, or his appointed commissioner.

"A "warrant" to further investigate the content of this communication can be issued, not by the Judiciary but by the PM or the Commissioner, and such a warrant can be issued not only for individuals, but for a "class" of people within New Zealand." [1]

[1] http://www.nzherald.co.nz/privacy/news/article.cfm?c_id=546&...

These two points are the most horrifying in my eyes, being enough for the PM to install himself as king by having complete surveillance over all the kingmaker positions within parliament. Expose a marital affair here, schedule meetings during a dental appointment there, and it's enough leverage to apply huge influence over the laws that are created. Now that it's completely legal, there's nothing anybody can do to stop it.

After the US and UK have been revealed as full of state-sponsored security holes, and the software patent idea being banned earlier this year, I was considering moving back to NZ. But now that this law has passed, what's the difference? NZ's just as full of spies, except with very few jobs and slow, expensive internet.

I am still considering moving but this is a worry. Might just have to start a local Wikileaks Party.

They got caught spying illegally. Solution: try to make it legal.

I don't get the national security argument for a country like NZ.

And for some context: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UKUSA_Agreement

Can you believe the balls on them?

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