The Green Party has lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) over allegations that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has been spying on New Zealanders in the Pacific.
The Green Party has lodged a complaint with the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) over allegations that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has been spying on New Zealanders in the Pacific.
This morning the former head of the GCSB, Sir Bruce Ferguson, confirmed that mass surveillance of the Pacific has been undertaken since 2009, while Prime Minister John Key claims such spying is legal but has not detailed how.
“John Key needs to put up, not shut up,” said Green Party Co-leader Russel Norman.
“Both the American National Security Agency (NSA) papers and Sir Bruce have confirmed there is “full take collection” in the Pacific. John Key needs to justify how that spying squares with our law.
“I challenge John Key to point to anywhere in the law that says this kind of mass indiscriminate spying on New Zealanders and the wholesale collection of our data is legal.
“How can it be illegal to undertake mass surveillance spying of New Zealanders when they are in New Zealand, but as soon as we hop on a plane to the Pacific we are fair game?
"John Key’s defence makes a nonsense of the law.
“Because John Key won’t front with answers I have asked the IGIS to look into these revelations and see whether the GCSB has broken the law.
"We have asked the IGIS to look at whether it is legal for them to spy on all New Zealanders in the Pacific, including citizens of Niue, Tokelau and the Cook Islands who are all New Zealand citizens by birth.
“The last time the IGIS investigated complaints over the Dirty Politics allegations she confirmed the allegations that the spy agencies had behaved inappropriately.
"John Key mislead New Zealanders by saying all the revelations in the NSA papers will be wrong, then he said he wouldn’t comment on them, then suddenly, he is assuring us that mass spying on New Zealanders in the Pacific is legal - he cannot have it all three ways.
“The Prime Minister doesn’t have the guts to front to the public, so we need our public watch dogs, such as the IGIS, to step in and monitor his actions,” said Dr Norman.
