Eckhoff Gerrard: Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
Eckhoff Gerrard: Telecommunications (Interception Capability) Bill — Second Reading Instruction to Committee In Committee Third Reading 
[Volume:616;Page:12288] 
GERRARD ECKHOFF (ACT) 
: 
 I want to take a relatively short call on what I deem to be an extremely important bill. As I am sure the Committee is well aware nobody values the freedoms of New Zealanders or indeed speaks more about the freedoms of New Zealanders than the ACT party. We are after all a classical liberal party. We do not like the intrusion of the State into our daily lives. Yet when we live in a society we must also reflect and understand the times that we live in. From time to time in order to ensure the freedoms the democracies and the lifestyle that we most certainly enjoy in this country we might have to accept that the power of the State to intercept and to act on our behalf against those who would do us real harm is extremely important. Somebody once said that the price of democracy is eternal vigilance. I have possibly got that wrong but I am sure that members understand the sentiment. For that very reason we have to ensure that Big Brother if that is the right expression is eternally vigilant and does have the capacity to act on behalf of our free society. It is indeed a free society despite what some in the Green Party would say about the influence of this bill and the powers it gives the State to intercept communications etc. 
I very much doubt whether New Zealanders who read  
Hansard  
or are listening to this debate would be the slightest bit concerned if the Security Intelligence Service listened into my conversation with my wife this morning about the euthanasia debate. I have not the slightest problem with the State intercepting my emails my communications with my family or my friends. I am unsure as to why Mr Locke feels that if I get a call from overseas I should be concerned if it comes from Yemen—highly unlikely! But if it did happen that I knew somebody in Yemen I really would not be concerned about the Security Intelligence Service or anybody else intercepting that call and checking me out thoroughly— 
Ron Mark 
: One wouldn’t know about a member of the Greens. 
GERRARD ECKHOFF 
: Yes that is right. Those are attitudes that I believe reasonable New Zealanders—indeed 99.9 percent of New Zealanders—hold. They understand the difficulties that we in the Western World face and the need to utilise technology. It is pointless having technology if we cannot utilise it and if we cannot give the intelligence services the opportunity to intercept on our behalf. It is worth reflecting that many many years ago we used to erect barriers to protect our society; Hadrian’s Wall the Great Wall of China and the Maginot line were built. We had physical barriers in those days. But today with technology advancement and threats physical barriers no longer protect anybody. In fact we need the cyberspace technologies and so on to ensure that we pick up the transmissions of terrorists one to the other who would seek to do us harm. 
I also emphasis the point that it is not just a matter of external threats from terrorist organisations emanating from the Middle East and other areas; I personally find that there are huge threats in our society from the pervasive influence of gangs in this country. The police need interception powers to understand whatever it is that the gangs are planning to do. With the huge sophistication of the means that those people employ these days the police must have powers to equal that sophistication and must have the opportunity to act and reflect the concerns of our society about those internally who would do us harm. I suspect that most New Zealanders do not have a problem with that.