Cunliffe David: Intelligence and Security Committee — MembershipText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeCunliffe David: Intelligence and Security Committee — Membership[Sitting date: 13 June 2013. Volume:691;Page:11148. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE (Labour—New Lynn):I am absolutely delighted to have an opportunity to contribute to this debate. I believe it is one of the more important matters that this House has had the opportunity to address itself to. It is very much important for all New Zealanders because of the far-reaching implications of the recent revelations about the United States’ security agencies—of the PRISM the US NationalSecurity Agency capabilities—and the implications they have for all New Zealanders and the freedoms that we hold dear.In World War I I understand that about 10 percent of New Zealand’s population served overseas—100000 out of one million New Zealanders. Of those 40000 were wounded and 18000 were killed. Over half of the one in 10 New Zealanders who served overseas became casualties of the Great War. When we look around this House we see names like Messines Egypt El Alamein or Gallipoli. We are reminded that the freedoms that we enjoy today have been paid for by the price of the blood of earlier generations of New Zealanders. We who stand or sit here in relative security and comfort can have no idea of the sacrifices that they made and the hardships that they endured. But we can have pride for example that when the tide turned at El Alamein it was the Kiwis and the Aussies who were in the front line of that break out. We have always punched above our weight as international citizens and we are not cowards.The Labour Opposition is not calling for proper constitutional safeguards because we are scared to play our part in constructive international citizenship nor are we saying that New Zealand citizens do not deserve the protection of proper legally authorised and capable intelligence agencies. The three questions that we must address ourselves to in this debate are: how did the vacancy occur that the Hon Tony Ryall is now being called upon to fill; what are the key challenges of that role and how are they changing; and what changes are required for the security apparatus to keep up to date with the changes around the world?Let me first address the first of those issues. Obviously as others have said this vacancy has arisen and Mr Ryall is being called forward because the Hon Peter Dunne is no longer asked to serve on the Intelligence and Security Committee. It is not as the Prime Minister has said to the public and to this House because there is any legal reason that as he is no longer a Minister he cannot serve. The Prime Minister lied to the public. And that is material because at the end of the day the entire intelligence apparatus—and the public confidence in it—rests upon confidence in the word of the Prime Minister who is the head of this committee and upon the public’s trust in the political independence and neutrality of that apparatus. Like in no time that I can remember since Rob Muldoon used the intelligence agencies to spy on Colin Moyle have I ever been more concerned than today about the political neutrality of this important institution. John Key is the new Muldoon. This is the new Colin Moyle scandal and this has to stop.Peter Dunne may or may not have leaked the Kitteridge report ahead of time. He has not been able to satisfy the Prime Minister that he did not and the Prime Minister is entitled to sack him or ask for his resignation as a result. That is not in dispute. What may be in dispute is that another member of Parliament may have had access to copies he says of the self-same emails and text messages. If so—and the Prime Minister disputes it—I ask how that could have occurred. If his communications as an individual or as a Minister were secure in this complex how could another member of Parliament have received copies of them?I would go so far as to say that the stability of this Government is being called into question because there is a Minister who has lost his portfolios and who may yet lose his seat if the Privileges Committee were to find against him or if the police were to find against him in a prosecution with a sentence of over 2 years. The stability of the Government would be under threat because another John Key appointment on this very committee is John Banks. The public will not forget that Mr Banks is under the gun because he somehow forgot that he accepted thousands—tens of thousands—of dollars in donations from one Kim Dotcom. Kim Dotcom was the person whom the Government Communications Security Bureau was allegedly illegally spying on in thefirst place which gave rise to the Kitteridge report. What a terrible closed circle of dysfunction. In trying to sort out the Dotcom mess another National Party prop may have leaked the very report that was supposed to tidy it up. The Government’s majority hangs by a thread—a thread that may be called Peter Dunne may be called John Banks or may be called perhaps Winston Peters or Tariana Turia.So New Zealanders must be under no doubt about the gravity of these issues. And John Key says “Trust me.” Well do you know what the former head of intelligence and security said about the Prime Minister? Sir Bruce Ferguson said that he must be smoking dope for linking the failings in the Government Communications Security Bureau to the deep defence and intelligence background of its former overseers. The former head of the agency has said that the Prime Minister has been blowing smoke because he appointed an old school friend instead of following a vital—vital—constitutional tradition of political impartiality. It is not OK to ring up your old school friend and tell him to apply for a job that you happen to be responsible for and to reject every other candidate put forward by the State Services Commission and the intelligence agencies in favour of your mate. Why does that matter? Because the freedoms of New Zealanders paid for at El Alamein matter. If I am angry it is because I feel that we are dishonouring them.New Zealanders may not appreciate the seriousness of this issue but here is why it does matter. I bring the House to the second of my two key points. This week a commissioner of the European Commission wrote to the United States Attorney General and said that she was raising serious concerns that the American intelligence agencies are “accessing and processing on a large scale the data of European Union citizens using major US online service providers [which] could have grave consequences for the fundamental rights of EU citizens.” She asked the following question of the US Attorney General: are PRISM and other similar programs aimed only at the data of US citizens? And for New Zealanders just to be clear these computers pick up every email every text and every Facebook post. Every time you access the internet—every single time—they record the trails that could identify those communications. That may not be wrong. The world is a dangerous place and we need to be proofed from legitimate threats. We do not want terrorists or foreign powers taking down our electricity system or our hospital system or our buildings. But they can be right only if they are protected by the law—the rule of law—and by the dispassionate apolitical demonstrably transparent oversight of the intelligence community. It is that tradition that is under the greatest threat today that it has been under since Rob Muldoon jacked up the resignation of Colin Moyle using the SIS.I say to New Zealanders that the time has come to be very very concerned about the progressive erosion of your freedoms and civil liberties by this National Government. Nobody now trusts John Key. Nobody trusts John Key a man who appointed his school friend to run the spy shop then lied about it. He is a man who lied about how he was required to sack Peter Dunne off this committee. And who knows what else he is lying about—Tim Macindoe: I raise a point of order Mr Speaker. That member knows that he cannot accuse anyone in this House of lying.The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Lindsay Tisch): Yes I just ask the member to be very careful. He has 11 seconds left.Hon DAVID CUNLIFFE: I challenge the Government to assure New Zealanders that the spy agencies are not accessing the data of other international counterparts to spy on New Zealand citizens in circumvention of legal warrant requirements and to have that requirement written into the Government Communications Security Bureau andRelated Legislation Amendment Bill that it has brought to this House. I require the Government to assure us that it will implement every recommendation—