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New Zealand Government About To Legalize Spying On NZ Citizens

Flere Imsaho writes "After admitting they have illegally spied on NZ citizens or residents 88 times (PDF) since 2003, the government, in a stunning example of arse covering, is about to grant the GCSB the right to intercept the communications of New Zealanders in its role as the national cyber security agency, rather than examine the role the GCSB should play and then look at the laws. There has been strong criticism from many avenues. The bill is being opposed by Labor and the Greens, but it looks like National now have the numbers to get this passed. Of course, the front page story is all about the royal baby, with this huge erosion of privacy relegated to a small article near the bottom of the front page. Three cheers, the monarchy is secure, never mind the rights of the people. More bread and circuses anyone?"

2 of 216 comments (clear)

  1. Re:Still illegal under NZ Constitution by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    New Zealand has constitutional documents (The Treaty of Waitangi, The New Zealand Bill Of Rights Act etc) just not a single Constitution because we copied England's system.
    HAVING a constitution would be a good idea, then we could entrench things like protection from being spied on, environmental protection (including not mining conservation land) etc... Although we'd probably need to do something to stop the people like the current government from editing it under """urgency""".

  2. Re:Still illegal under NZ Constitution by Runaway1956 · · Score: 4, Informative

    No, no, no - the Queen has her morning constitution pretty regulalry, then wipes with Royal constitution paper!

    The Constitution of the United Kingdom is the set of laws and principles under which the United Kingdom is governed.[1]

    Unlike many other nations, the UK has no single constitutional document. This is sometimes expressed by stating that it has an uncodified or "unwritten" constitution.

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