Greens lodge complaint as Pacific spying allegations confirmed

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.

Attached is the letter from Dr Russel Norman to the IGIS

http://img.scoop.co.nz/media/pdfs/1503/050320151627440001.pdf

The follow text from the body of the letter is based on automated text recognition. Please refer to the original PDF.

Dear Inspector-General,

I wish to lay a complaint with your office, under section 11 of the InspectorGeneral of Intelligence and Security Act 1996, regarding revelations that the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) has spied on New Zealand citizens and permanent residents through mass surveillances in the Pacific region.

The New Zealand Herald, in its investigative piece published 5 March 2015, alleges that the - GCSB has engaged in mass surveillance on a number of states in the Pacific. It cites documents which purport to show that metadata and communications of New Zealand o citizens and permanent residents living, holidaying in and interacting with the region were obtained by the GCSB. The allegations also cover New Zealand citizens who live in the Cook Islands, Niue and Tokelau (I would further note people from these countries are New Zealand citizens by right).

As it is illegal for the GCSB to spy on New Zealand citizens and permanent residents, under o y section 14 of the Government Communications Security Bureau Act 2003, we have genuine concern that laws were broken as a result of the Government's "full-take collection" policy.

I am also particularly concerned about the allegation that the test used by foreign intelligence , analysts, the New Zealand Signals Intelligence Directive 7, to assess their knowledge of New Zealand law, was considered "not entirely consistent with the law" by the Crown Law Office (Review of Compliance at the Government Communications Security Bureau, Kitteridge Report, March 2013, page 57). Therefore, this raises concerns about the overall integrity of No. the manner in which the information collected by the GCSB was being handled.

As the officer responsible for the oversight of the GCSB, as well as for reviewing the GCSBs compliance procedures and systems, I urge you to undertake an inquiry into this matter and investigate these allegations.

Oversight of our intelligence agencies is vital to ensure public confidence in the work that these agencies do, and these revelations threaten to undermine this confidence.

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