Delahunty Catherine: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeDelahunty Catherine: Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 25 November 2014. Volume:702;Page:795. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]CATHERINE DELAHUNTY (Green):Tēnā koe Mr Assistant Speaker. Tēnā koutou e te Whare. Hyperbolic is indeed the word but this bill is worse than hyperbole. It is extending the powers of an incompetent Government agency that has just had to apologise to the Opposition. It is a bizarre day in the history of the New Zealand Parliament today—a very dark day in terms of accountability and transparency. This bill to our shame is going to increase the lack of protection and safety for the very people it claims to protect.The Green Party is very proud to stand alone in this House having opposed this bill from day one because it is not going to look after civil liberties and human rights and what is worse it is not going to make the world a safer place. If the test is whether the world will be safer because of these provisions the bill has failed. If you actually look at the bill the title does not even connect to the provisions which is why so many people concerned about human rights and liberties are questioning the broad powers that are being given to the SIS in this bill that can then be applied to anyone who is a dissenter.The current furore over the despicable behaviour of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant is a great opportunity to extend the powers of an agency that has failed us already. Its ability to conduct coherent and responsible surveillance of our citizens—we have the example of Tūhoe. We need to remember our history. We need to remember that the SIS is apologising today for a reason: it was inappropriate it bordered on losing its neutrality and it appeared to be working one part of the State against another. And now we propose to extend its powers so that it does not even need a warrant for 48 hours of surveillance of people’s homes because the Americans have told us to do it?It is beyond a joke. It is a very serious moment when this starts to happen to the citizens of this country. I am speaking as someone who has had the SIS following me around at the age of 15. If you read the blog of Keith Locke he has also experienced a lifelong surveillance. We come from families of peace activists. Those are the people who get surveilled. The people who fight for peace peacefully are at as much risk as the juvenile fantasists who want to join the jihad. So why is this bill so broad? Why is there a short tiny select committee process? Why is there urgency? And why will the provisions go on to 2018? I am as appalled as anyone by the fundamentalism that has been let loose upon the world. Whether it is the United States fundamentalism or whether it is other fundamentalist groups in the Middle East any form of fundamentalism will not be cured by paranoid surveillance States. What we are doing is creating and radicalising people who will then take unspeakable actions against society. Based on paranoia fear and surveillance we are saying that we are going to live in a low-trust society and we will push those people into acts that they should never do. We will be part of the problem. The reason that ISIL has gained so much support is the drones that have been dumped upon the people of North Africa and Iraq at the push of a button somewhere in the United States of America. The uranium missiles that have caused the cancers in the children of Iraq—those are the mechanisms by which you radicalise a population.It is incredibly disappointing to see civil liberties of this whole country attacked in the name of safety. This is not safe. The passport laws as Keith Locke points out probably will not work at all because the definition of terrorist is wrong. There are incredible problems with extending surveillance to the agency that I mentioned which already fails to do its job properly. We do not trust the SIS and we do not trust the Government. I can go back to Ahmed Zaoui. I can go back to this current Government’s behaviour on many issues and say: “We can’t trust you.” I know that today outside this House people are grateful to the Green Party despite the attacks on us for standing up and being prepared to say that this is Draconian this is wrong and this will not make the world a safer place. If we want to end violence we must look at our own behaviour. We will always oppose this kind of legislation. Thank you.