Hughes Gareth: Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill — Referral to Law and Order Committee Second ReadingText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeHughes Gareth: Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill — Referral to Law and Order Committee Second Reading[Sitting date: 15 October 2013. Volume:694;Page:13856. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]GARETH HUGHES (Green): Kia ora.Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou. Kia ora. I rise to oppose the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Bill. It was around 7 years ago today that we saw masked gunmen on behalf of the New Zealand Government terrorise a community in New Zealand under the rubric of protecting New Zealanders but all they did was terrorise a community and scaremonger amongst the New Zealand population. What we see 7 years on is a continuation of that Government approach this time using online and internet communication technologies. I am proud to oppose this bill. It is a small contribution I will be making. I oppose it because I wantto stand up for freedom I want to stand up for Kiwis’ privacy and I want to stand up for less State interference in people’s lives.I remember when the last Government was in and we saw low-flow showerheads and efficient light bulbs saving Kiwis money. It was called the nanny State. Here we have the Government under the Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Act and the Telecommunications (Interception Capability and Security) Act literally going down the country’s internet cables through its fibre connections and into its homes to intercept it. What we are seeing are interceptions on behalf of other Governments as part of our relationships with other “Five Eyes” network Governments. I am proud to be voting against this bill. It is bad law it is badly drafted it is being seen through a bad process it is bad for Kiwis and it is bad for our thriving information and communications technology sector.First up it is bad law. This bill which is coupled with the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) legislation rewards the unlawful activities of our spies. What we saw after those Urewera raids was 85 Kiwis unlawfully spied upon. Instead of inquiring into what went wrong and trying to fix those mistakes what this Government has decided to do is legislate to make right what was unlawful. What we see is the Government expanding its surveillance reach. We now see service providers included under that massive big government under National. What we see in this law is interception capabilities being enhanced and then we see on the network security side of this bill that information and communications technology companies now need to consult with the GCSB and get its sign-off for installing new kit and they must be intercept ready.It is badly drafted. I would like to quote fromNZRise the open-source software community of New Zealand. It writes that “The bill is currently drafted so broadly it creates huge uncertainty and therefore business and investment risk for anyone in the New Zealand ICT industry or considering entering it.” We see some improvements from the Minister for Communications and Information Technology like the removal of clause 39 which would rule out things like Facebook Messenger and Google Hangouts which many Kiwis use because they use encryption technology. It was incredibly poorly drafted.We are seeing this through a poor process. We are missing a crucial step which is an inquiry. We need to find out what this Government got so wrong when we saw unlawful spying on Kiwis so we can make it right. After all those cases of unlawful spying and after the Snowden revelations we need an inquiry and we need a better process and it is bad for our information and communications technology sector. What we see is greater uncertainty and greater Government involvement in what people invest in and install. We are going to see greater delays. We even see our information and communications technology companies say that they are going to have to choose between breaking either New Zealand law or US law. In fact what we might see is those Kiwis choosing not to operate in New Zealand. We will be the poorer for it.With the rise of cloud-based computing we see real risks to the next frontier where New Zealand could see true thriving growth. Just 2 days ago we saw Rod Drury’sXero raise $180 million in capital for his cloud-based accounting software. Using these new cloud-based tools we can offer the world services. But what this Government has decided to say is “You need to do it with the GCSB signing it off.” It is going to stifle innovation and it is going to squash the potential of our information and communications technology sector and that is why we are voting against it. It is a bad law badly drafted bad for our information and communications technology industry and a bad process. That is why we are voting against it. Kia ora.