Guy Nathan: Search and Surveillance Bill — First Reading 
Guy Nathan: Search and Surveillance Bill — First Reading 
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Hon NATHAN GUY (Minister of Internal Affairs) 
: 
 This is a great opportunity to take a call on the first reading of the Search and Surveillance Bill. My understanding is that it will be heading to the Justice and Electoral Committee which is chaired by Chester Borrows. 
This is a chunky bill of over 200 pages and it has taken a while to get here. 
Chris Hipkins 
: How many pages has the member read? 
Hon NATHAN GUY 
: The existing police powers are up to 50 years old and it is important that this bill addresses that point. I should alert the member opposite Mr Hipkins to the Law Commission’s 2007 report; I am sure that he would be aware of it. It took about 5 years of public consultation research and discussion for this bill to get here so that member needs to know that this bill has taken a long time. That is why it is of the nature that it is—a couple of hundred pages in length. I look forward to the member’s contribution in this debate this evening if he is willing to take a call. 
This bill does a couple of things. It corrects the inconsistencies in the way that search powers are framed and in how they may be exercised. Legislation does not always meet law enforcement needs or adequately provide protections to those who may be subject to a search. Another significant point is that there is uncertainty as to the nature or extent of some existing search powers and procedures. So bringing law enforcement and regulatory agencies under the standardised procedural provisions of the bill will provide benefits. 
I think it is important to go through some of those benefits because members of the public might be interested as indeed might some in the House as well. There will be access to a pool of issuing officers who will be available on a 24 hours a day 7 days a week basis and that is very important. There will be the ability to submit warrant applications electronically. Also there will be clarification of the actions that searchers may take when exercising search powers including what they may seize. The power to secure search scenes is another important one as is the power to stop vehicles in order to conduct a search. The final point is that this legislation will enable clear rules and procedures regarding items that may have been seized during a search. 
I think it is important to realise where technology has got to over the last 50 years and what this bill enables those who are very technologically skilled to do. We need to think about the advances that society has made over the last 50 years. The bill allows remote computer searches only where it is not possible to access a physical location to search for example a computer. That is important. It might be a situation where there is an email account at various Internet cafes or where not all of the data is located in a particular hard drive or at the physical location. So the information could be stored at a variety of locations. 
The other important contribution I will make this evening is to say that regulatory agencies that already have the power to physically search homes and individuals will have the ability to apply to carry out other covert surveillance as long as there is—and there are a couple of important points here—sufficient information to suspect an offence. The other important point is that the desired covert surveillance will have to produce evidence of that offending and the surveillance will have to be reasonable as to whether it is proportionate to the offence being investigated. The other important point is the issue as to whether New Zealanders consider covert surveillance to be any more intrusive than physical searching of their homes or of themselves in person. 
This is a very very good bill. It has taken a while to get here and the Justice and Electoral Committee looks forward to hearing submissions right across the board. I am sure there will be a great deal of people among the public who want to get involved in this bill. From listening to some of the speeches this evening my understanding is that there is a great deal of support for this bill and I look forward to seeing those people getting involved in making a submission and turning up to the Justice and Electoral Committee to be heard if they so wish. The Government supports the very important first reading of the Search and Surveillance Bill.