Campaign to Stop the Search and Surveillance Bill

A national day of protest against the Search and Surveillance Bill will be held on Saturday, 24th April. Simultaneous protests will be held in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch.

“It is time to get out on the street and show our disgust with this Bill,” Batch Hales, spokesperson for the Wellington Stop the Bill group said.

“There has been horror expressed at this Bill since it was first introduced to the House,” Batch continued. “People and groups up and down the country have spoken out against it and the Chief Justice, the Privacy Commissioner and the Human Rights Commissioner have all consistently criticized it.

“It’s time the government saw sense and scrapped the whole Bill.”

If it becomes law, the Search and Surveillance Bill will see a dramatic expansion of police and government agencies’ powers. It will also fundamentally alter longstanding legal conventions such as the right to silence, the right against self-incrimination and the right to be free from unreasonable search.

“It’s interesting,” said Batch, “that in 1973 National spoke against police been given powers to tap phones. Back then, National said ‘…police are the last people who should interfere with telephones.’ ‘Unless we are heading for a dictatorship or a Police State the changes should not be tolerated.’ Now, National want to allow police to install videos and bugs in people’s homes.

“This Bill is open slather on civil liberties and privacy,” said Batch. “Any legislation that reduces our basic right to privacy and removes civil liberties by extending the power of the state has to be fought by all of us. We are sleep-walking into George Orwell’s ‘1984’ and we have to stop it.”

In Wellington, the protest will start at 12.30pm, Saturday, 24th April, at the corner of Manners Mall and Cuba Street. Further details can be found at: http://stopthebillnow.blogspot.com

ENDS

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