Shearer David: Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Bill Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Amendment Bill Intelligence and Security Committee Amendment Bill — Third ReadingsText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeShearer David: Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment Bill Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Amendment Bill Intelligence and Security Committee Amendment Bill — Third Readings[Sitting date: 21 August 2013. Volume:692;Page:12691. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment BillInspector-General of Intelligence and Security Amendment BillDAVID SHEARER (Leader of the Opposition):I start by first thanking the Prime Minister for coming to the House and explaining to us what his Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) legislation is in fact going to do and may I recommend that next time the Government puts the clauses into the bill rather than having to rely on a third reading.Today we confront a challenge that countries around the world are grappling with: how we keep our countries safe from cyber-intrusion and terrorism. That threat is veryreal and I have experienced it at first hand. I absolutely understand the critical importance of national security and we in the Labour Party take that very seriously. But just as important is how we balance that with the need to protect our freedoms and our right to privacy. That is our challenge.We are living in an age dominated by everything digital and developing at a pace without equal in humankind. Just a few short years ago we communicated solely via letters in the mail. That is a dying trade these days. Instead the internet dominates our lives and we use it to educate ourselves and others to create new innovations to communicate and to do business at home and around the world. With it and other technology almost anything can be found out about anyone at the touch of a button: where someone lives and works what they do in their spare time whom they talk to and what they say—every detail of our most private moments that we hold sacred. In the wrong hands this technology can be used as a weapon to pry into our lives in a way that we all find abhorrent. We cannot completely prevent that kind of abuse by individuals and organisations with malicious intent. The power of the Government and its security agencies can play their part to combat that threat but we must have confidence in those agencies we must be clear about the limits and we must trust the oversight that has been given to them.The legislation being passed today was the perfect opportunity to be a world leader in addressing this area. The revelations of Bradley Manning and Edward Snowden have created global disquiet but the sad fact about the GCSB legislation is that all that it has achieved is to fuel fear about the State’s ability to pry not about those threats that we may face. That has been because of the way the GCSB legislation was written and rammed through Parliament.We could have seized the chance to thoroughly investigate how our intelligence sector works in an increasingly global environment. We could have robustly debated the rights and responsibilities of the State and when and how it should deploy the tools at its disposal for our national security. We could have based the legislation on the findings of a full and independent inquiry. We could have been a world leader confronting these dilemmas and charting through a path that would act as a model for other countries. We have been a leader in the past. We led in giving women the vote in the 19th century and we led in having a nuclear-free New Zealand in the 20th century. This was our opportunity to lead again. That would have been a great starting point for restoring Kiwis’ confidence.Instead this legislation is about simply getting across the line. It is about finding a quick remedy to a political hangover. John Key tells us that people do not care about this issue. Well we know that that is not true. Thousands of New Zealanders have marched in the streets and gone to rallies and there have been debates in workplaces homes and communities right across the country. They might not understand John Key’s confused and complex explanations about how sections 8A and 8C relate to section 15 or section 14 or whatever or the two-stage warrant process that he would be sure to put in place as Prime Minister. But they do not find this legislation at all reassuring. They have no faith that we have got the balance right or that we have fully thought through the consequences of this law.Labour was open to negotiations from the beginning. We had a principled position that we needed a thorough inquiry right across our entire intelligence network because that was fundamental to getting the solution correct. John Key did us the courtesy of listening but he made it crystal clear that he was not interested in any compromise. He did not want to deal with Labour or anyone else because he already had Peter Dunne in the bag. He had the single vote the one vote that he needed to pass this legislation today. I find that deeply deeply disappointing. This issue strikes at the heart of oursociety our sovereignty and our rights and freedoms as citizens of this country. It is too important to simply bring it back to a numbers game to a situation where you have a willing buyer and a willing seller.This is a sad day. We are passing legislation that is ad hoc that ismickey mouse and where you have to have a third reading to explain exactly what it will do. It will do nothing to reassure New Zealanders that their private lives are safe from the prying eyes of our spies. Right up to the last minute the Prime Minister has been forced to clarify what the GCSB will actually achieve whether it will be able to read your emails how many warrants it needs and what foreign powers it might share that information with. New Zealanders deserve much better than that. They deserve better than bad law. They deserve better than the loose law they are seeing in front of us today the law that leaves them looking over their shoulders. New Zealand could have led the way in responding to an increasingly digital age and got the balance right between keeping our citizens safe and our personal freedoms intact.There is hope though. The next Government a Labour-led Government will take a different path. We will act on day one in office to commission the full review that we have promised. We will seek agreement across this Parliament for terms of reference. We will involve New Zealanders at every step of the way. We will replace this law with a world-leading one that is based on the findings of that comprehensive inquiry because the only way we will ever win back people’s trust which has been so sadly lost right across this country is to get an enduring solution that works in the best interests of this country. Thank you.