Finlayson Christopher: Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill — Referral to Government Administration Committee In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeFinlayson Christopher: Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill — Referral to Government Administration Committee In Committee[Sitting date: 06 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12366. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON (Attorney-General):It is very sad that the previous speaker Phil Goff has been here for 40 or so years and all he can do is give one speech—a vein-popping performance. He has not looked at the legislation the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill but has simply stood up and raved. It is particularly contemptible when one considers that he was Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade for some time until he had to hand over to Winston and then he was Minister of Defence. As he said he has worked—Hon Trevor Mallard: I raise a point of order Mr Chairperson. There are a number of ways in which Mr Peters can be described—the right honourable member—The CHAIRPERSON (Lindsay Tisch): I thank the member. From now on we will address members by their correct titles please.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: Yes the Rt Hon Winston Peters—such a distinguished member of this place. But what we are getting from the Green Party is a perfectly acceptable approach for the Green Party. For example when looking at clause 6 which deals with among other things introducing a new section 7 the Greens’ approach was utterly predictable and utterly principled. They do not believe in the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB). They do not believe that there should be anything to deal with the economic well-being of New Zealand.The Greens’ approach in 2001 through to 2003 was that there should be no GCSB. Their approach today is that and they have raised their points of objection in a principled way. But not so the Labour Party. The Labour Party’s approach quite frankly is utterly contemptible. It is a wilful misreading of the legislation before the House. Labour members go on and on about safeguards for example. They have not referred to one of the safeguards that are set out in this bill. Are they in favour of theprivacy requirements that I went through in some detail? Are they in favour of some of the other safeguards? They have a wilful ignorance of them and would rather just carry out a yelling and screaming function. I find it very disappointing when there is such a major piece of legislation before the House where there used to be cross-party consensus on these matters but they have shattered it.But let us look at clause 6. I have dealt with the new section 7 and in my first call I went into some detail—Hon Clayton Cosgrove: A dissertation.Hon CHRISTOPHER FINLAYSON: It was not a dissertation I say to Mr Cosgrove. It was a very careful analysis of each of the key clauses to inform the debate but regrettably they were not listening. Maybe they had been at the SaundersUnsworth function too long because they stood up and yelled and screamed. But let us look at clause 6. I have dealt with new section 7 and then I spoke at some length about new sections 8 8A down to 8C.Let us go through it again. New section 8 is designed to spell out very clearly the functions of the bureau. Section 8A introduced by clause 6 deals with information assurance and cyber security. Section 8B—a very important one which I will come to again in some detail in a few seconds—deals with intelligence gathering and analysis. Section 8C deals with cooperation with other entities and I have to say that I believe that the Supplementary Order Paper proposed in relation to section 8C by Mr Dunne is a very good piece of work and we will certainly be supporting it. It tightens it up even more so that it refers to only the New Zealand Police the Defence Force and the Security Intelligence Service.Then we come over to the clause that the Labour Party keeps ignoring and that is the one covering the rewrite of the existing section 14. If one looks at clause 12 one sees the rewrite. The current section 14 was intended to codify the basic requirement underpinning the operations of the GCSB that it was not to conduct foreign intelligence activities against New Zealanders. That has been the section where we have come into a bit of rough water in recent times and rough water when Labour was in power and the member for Mt Roskill was the Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Minister of Defence.The way the basic premise was incorporated into the 2003 Act meant that it applied not only to the foreign intelligence function but also to its other two functions. So what are we doing here? We are rewriting section 14 incorporated by clause 12. It is a critically important clause. What it does is clarify the basic premise that there is to be no spying on New Zealanders and specifically refers to the foreign intelligence function in section 8B. If you read the words of new section 14(1) one sees that the purpose is clarified and the safeguards are also spelt out in some considerable detail in Part 1.I am sorry but the New Zealand Law Society is wrong—the Law Society is wrong. What is more more than a few members of the profession have expressed their concerns to me about the way their submissions were given by someone who then went to the Mt Albert War Memorial Hall and was making all sorts of extravagant comments—someone who used to act for MrZaoui—and at the same time was purporting to represent the Law Society. The thing about the Law Society to quote a former United States judge is that it is the bar that makes the statutes and it is a very important function the Law Society fulfils to come down to this place to give Governments of all persuasion a good swift kick from time to time but to do so in an impartial and professional way. Regrettably the standards were not applied in the case of the submissions on this legislation. There will be more about that later.