Browning Steffan: Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill — First ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeBrowning Steffan: Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill — First Reading[Sitting date: 08 May 2013. Volume:689;Page:9675. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]STEFFAN BROWNING (Green): I rise to speak to the Government Communications Security Bureau and Related Legislation Amendment Bill. The question has to be who makes New Zealand spying law and whom it is for. Clearly it is for John Key and his mates but it is also I suggest for Echelon the five-nations USA-dominated spy agency that has its Government Communications Security Bureau arm run spy domes at Waihopai.This week there are three different significant spy activities going on in New Zealand. The first is these new spy laws being fast tracked into Parliament instead of first having an independent inquiry into the Government Communications Security Bureau its illegal spying on us Kiwis and its functions. The second is the faux damages trial of the three penniless dome-busting peace activists for $1.2 million for their costs for popping one of the Waihopai domes while trying to interrupt New Zealand’s part in the bloodshed of innocents—Government Communications Security Bureau material again. That really embarrassed New Zealand to its USA UK Australian and Canadian spy mates so today John Key has got a gift for them: this bill.The third is very disturbing as well I think. Today the US Attorney General Eric Holder is in Auckland New Zealand for the five-nation meeting of Attorneys-General. That is a meeting of the US Attorney General; the Aussie Attorney-General; the New Zealand Attorney-General; the England Wales and Northern Ireland Attorney General; and the Canadian Attorney General—the same group from Echelon. Also today they are holding a joint session with the FBI-instigated Strategic Alliance Group comprising the same five nations’ federal policing agencies: the FBI the Australian Federal Police the UK’s Serious Organised Crime Agency the New Zealand Police and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. So the five Echelon States have their Attorneys-General and policing agencies all here having a chat about among other things Kim Dotcom’s Megaupload and who knows what of the other 88 people illegally spied on by the Government Communications Security Bureau which this bill intends to make legal in the future.John Key must feel very very smug at having a new spying law for his mates in town that can allow Echelon to spy on effectively anyone and have total access to all telecommunications and internet systems. A big focus will be on the USA-UK corporate masters’ income protection including their Hollywood mates but it is a huge huge loss for the civil liberties of Kiwis. New Zealand needs to break away from these alliances which are set on protecting the USA-UK industrial military complex and needs to show an independent peace-loving example predicated on human and civil rights.So we have John Key and his hand-picked mate Government Communications Security Bureau Director Ian Fletcher spying on us New Zealanders.I will give just a little reminder of where the Government Communications Security Bureau Act came from in 2003 when MPs repeatedly commented that there was nothing to worry about because the bill expressly stated that New Zealanders could not be spied on. But we know of at least 88 now. In 2003 Tony Ryall said: “people who have quite a bent on conspiracy theories and seem to think that all the Government Communications Security Bureau ever does is listen on New Zealanders’ telephone calls which is of course expressly prohibited. The bureau is not allowed to listen in on New Zealanders.” Peter Dunne also said he would listen to no concerns when the 2003 bill was passed. He said: “This is a good bill. I do not accept the criticism of those who speak against it that somehow it means that information about people will be gathered improperly”. Well Tony Ryall and Peter Dunne showed how clear it was to Parliament when it passed that bill that the bureau was not permitted to spy on New Zealanders. The law and the intent of the law were not confusing; the bureau just did not follow it. There is no justification for the expansion of powers other than that the bureau was breaking the law. It is not needed. The law is adequate. The Greens want an inquiry. We think the bill should be pulled and we oppose it.