Prime Minister John Key this afternoon announced a new Securities Intelligence Service (SIS) Bill to allow the government agency wider surveillance powers.The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Amendment Bill will update the existing law, which was
Prime Minister John Key this afternoon announced a new Securities Intelligence Service (SIS) Bill to allow the government agency wider surveillance powers.
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Amendment Bill will update the existing law, which was passed in 1969 and which is mostly concerned with security issues from the Cold War era, Mr Key said.
The law also pre-dates the computer revolution and the advent of mobile phones and it is in this area most of the wider surveillance powers are focussed.
The regulatory impact statement which accompanies the bill says the law will make the SIS’s powers more clear “by providing expressly for electronic tracking within the warrant framework, as well as formally confirming that the NZSIS can continue to undertake electronic tracking surveillance.”
SIS officers already have the power “to do any act that is reasonable in the circumstances and reasonably required to achieve the purposes for which the warrant was issued.”
The advice though says that surveillance on computers and mobile phones “does impact on property rights, any interference would usually be minor. The warrant tests of necessity and value of information would continue to apply and would be weighed up against any operational proposal involving interference with a computer system.”
The change also allows for “greater flexibility” in which SIS staff can undertake such work.
The main thrust of the legislation appears to be to protect SIS operatives from legal challenge of work they are already doing.
