14 May 2015

Dunne Welcomes Security Agencies Review

UnitedFuture leader Peter Dunne has welcomed the announcement of the details of the first independent review of security agencies to be conducted by Sir Michael Cullen and Dame Patsy Reddy.

The review has come about because of specific amendments to the GCSB and SIS legislation which Mr Dunne negotiated with the Prime Minister in 2013.

“These reviews are an important part of making our intelligence and security agencies more transparent and accountable, and thereby affording individual citizens greater protection.

“This first review is especially timely, given both the passage of the Foreign Fighters legislation late last year, and today’s vote by the United States House of Representatives to outlaw mass collection of private telephone data by the National Security Agency.

“I will be looking to the review to examine the GCSB’s and the SIS’s current practices in this light, and whether their methods are necessary or still appropriate.

“I also hope the inquiry will look at the agencies’ relationship with agencies of other Five Eyes partners, and whether the rights and privacy of New Zealanders are compromised by the nature of those relationships, and the way the agencies interact.

“A particularly important issue for the review to consider is the definition and protection of metadata, which is an outstanding part of my agreement with the Prime Minister in 2013,” he says.

Mr Dunne says most New Zealanders accept there is a legitimate role for security agencies in protecting the country’s interests.

“What is important, though, is that in doing so, the agencies come out of the shadows, and act with greater transparency and accountability so that the rights and freedoms we enjoy as New Zealanders are not unnecessarily compromised or impinged upon.

“The independent review is an important is an important of giving New Zealanders that assurance, and therefore needs to be bold and wide-ranging in its approach,” he says.

Ends

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