National Party president complains of covert filming – oh the rich irony!

.

Source

.

Oh dear, oh dear me. Karma is working overtime this year – and has National politicians and Party apparatchiks firmly in it’s sights.

National Party president Peter Goodfellow complains  of  having been the victim of   “covert video surveillance”?!?!

But wait – isn’t this precisely what National intended last year when they passed the odious Search and Surveillance Act 2012?!

The NZ Herald – no “lefty” newspaper – condemned the Bill on 21 September 2011, when it was still in passing through Parliament,

“The new search and surveillance bill, which has been on Parliament’s books for two years, acknowledges this by providing for secret filming on private property in serious cases, including arms offences.

But the Government has been in no hurry to pass it, a fact criticised in the Supreme Court judgment. Now, with only two sitting weeks before the general election, time has run out.

If the Government wishes to rush its urgent short-term law through Parliament next week, it needs the Labour Party to agree. However, its leader, Phil Goff, points to the perils inherent in legislation that would apply retrospectively, so filmed evidence already collected could be used. He wants this new bill to go to a select committee. That is the right course.

In that forum, the Government’s case for urgency would be put under appropriate scrutiny. This would surely conclude that, in the context of sound parliamentary practice and the Supreme Court ruling, this legislation is inappropriate and probably unnecessary.”

Source

As Green MP, David Clendon said on 22 March last year,

“This bill is overwhelmingly negative, in that it clearly seeks to give the widest possible powers to the police, to the Customs Service, to the Department of Internal Affairs, to the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry, and to a whole swathe of other Government officials who hereafter will be enabled to make the most extraordinary intrusions into the private business of New Zealand citizens, who may well simply be going about their legal and honest business.

There is simply no justification for such a wide-ranging, all-encompassing, enabling approach. We simply do not have the political climate or the legal or social context that requires the level of intrusion that this bill will allow. This is far beyond the reasonable needs of the police or any other Government enforcement agency.

The argument that this level of intrusion need concern only criminals, and that honest people may rest assured that their privacy and the integrity of their homes, business, and indeed their person will not be compromised, simply does not wash.”

Source

The National Business Review wasn’t terrible happy either, in this headlined story a day later,

‘Undemocratic’ Search and Surveillance Bill made law

Source

And Taranaki’s Daily News” editorial on 2 October last year was equally critical,

“At the time of the act’s introduction to Parliament in March, Justice Minister Judith Collins defended it on the basis of it bringing “order, certainty, clarity and consistency to messy, unclear and outdated search and surveillance laws”.

She also pointed out that the act draws together, under one statute, the powers that existed under 69 separate laws.

That rationale, which borders on the closest the Government could come up with as an assurance that this was no significant change, more good housekeeping, will reassure no-one.

[…]

Even at this early stage there is a disquiet among many in this country who traditionally are government supporters.”

Source

The Search and Surveillance Act 2012 gave extensive additional powers to the Police and to other State bodies. In many instances, Police may not even have to apply for a warrant to keep you, your family, your friends, under surveillance.

So for Mr Goodfellow to now complain about a breach of his privacy because he was covertly filmed… oh the delicious irony of it!

A private investigator may not be an official arm of the State – but considering that National is only too happy to contract out services – including private prisons and schools – should not escape our notice. A private investigator is only a contract-away from doing the State’s bidding.

Especially under a National regime.

And anyway, what does Mr Goodfellow have to fear if he is being covertly filmed?

As National MP Tim Macindoe said in Parliament on 7 March last year, when the Search and Surveillance Bill was being debated,

“I have to say I do not have a lot of interest in the human rights of those who are not interested in obeying the laws, because quite often they threaten our safety, our security, our homes, our elderly, and the vulnerable in our society.”

Source

Ain’t it a bitch when a government passes authoritarian legislation, extending police powers, and that government’s own Party members get caught up as  ‘victims’ of a resulting culture of State intrusion into our private lives?

Welcome to the real world, Mr Goodfellow.

.

.

.

= fs =