Norman Russel: Estimates Debate — In CommitteeText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeNorman Russel: Estimates Debate — In Committee[Sitting date: 30 July 2013. Volume:692;Page:12041. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Dr RUSSEL NORMAN (Co-Leader—Green):This is about the separation of the powers of the Government. Under our system of Government there are three branches. There is the executive branch headed by the Prime Minister; there is the parliamentary branch headed by the Speaker; and there is the judicial branch headed by the head of the Supreme Court. It is fundamental to protecting our freedom and our democracy that those three branches are kept separate.That is why the intrusion by the Prime Minister’s office into parliamentary affairs is fundamentally a threat to our democracy. The chief of staff of the Prime Minister’s office sent an email to Parliamentary Service authorising the release of Peter Dunne’s parliamentary emails—these are not his ministerial emails; these are his parliamentary emails on his parliamentary email server—about a report that he received as a parliamentarian. That is a report he received as the leader of the United Future Party. He never received it as a Minister. We are dealing with an intrusion by the Prime Minister’s office—in fact by the Prime Minister’s agent the chief of staff—into the affairs of Parliament and an attempt by the Prime Minister by the executive branch of Government to intrude into the affairs of the parliamentary branch.That is fundamentally important to the system of checks and balances in our democracy. If members of Parliament cannot protect their email accounts from the Prime Minister if we cannot be sure that the Prime Minister cannot come in and read our emails—and we cannot be sure any more because the Prime Minister has just done it—if we cannot protect our email accounts from the Prime Minister’s office then it becomes very difficult for us to perform our function of keeping the executive accountable. The executive has massive powers of surveillance and intrusion into our lives. The Prime Minister has special agencies called the Government Communications Security Bureau and the SIS which report directly to him that have the ability to break into our email accounts and find out what we are up to. This is fundamental to our system of democracy and freedom.It applies to the case of the journalist as well. Let us remember that the New Zealand Defence Force categorised journalists as subversives—right? That is how it categorised them in its manual. That is relevant to this case because under the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act the SIS’s functions are “to obtain … intelligence relevant to security” and “security” means “the protection of New Zealand from acts of espionagesabotage and subversion”. If you can be defined by the Government as a subversive as journalists are defined by this Government—the New Zealand Defence Force defines them that way—then you become a legitimate target for the SIS to break into your email account and read your emails. If that happens to journalists trying to keep the executive responsible then there is no way that we can have a functional democracy. If it happens to members of Parliament because the Prime Minister’s chief of staff decides that he has some—[Interruption ]The CHAIRPERSON (H V Ross Robertson): Order! Order! I have a debate going on in the Chamber and I have two going on either side of me.Dr RUSSEL NORMAN: If the Prime Minister’s chief of staff decides that he has the authority to authorise the release of a member of Parliament’s email log then it fundamentally undermines our democratic process. There could not be a more serious breach than the Prime Minister’s office authorising access to a member of Parliament’s email log. It goes to the very heart of why this institution exists. If we are going to stand here and actually say that for all those things for which all those people fought—for freedom and for democracy—we cannot be bothered to fight this fight and if the Government of the day says “Well we’ve got every right to read everyone’s emails.” then we simply are not doing our job. We have a fundamental duty to the people of New Zealand to protect freedom to protect democracy and we can do that only if Parliament itself protects its right not to be intruded on by the executive by the Prime Minister’s office.That is what this debate is about and that is why Peter Dunne’s parliamentary email account is so important to this debate. The fact that the Prime Minister’s office the Henry inquiry authorised by the Prime Minister’s office saw fit to break into Peter Dunne’s email account without Peter Dunne’s consent—remember Peter Dunne never gave his consent for the David Henry inquiry to do it—Vote agreed to.