GCSB Bill "deeply, deeply flawed" - Russel Norman

On TV ONE’s Q+A programme Russel Norman reiterated calls for an inquiry into whether the two spy agencies are necessary.

“We need an inquiry to look into exactly what we do need. So, do we need a GCSB and an SIS? If we do need some of those functions, how should it be established? What should the accountabilities be? That’s why we’ve argued all along that we need an inquiry that starts with first principle.”

Russel Norman says “And it also, when you read the legislation in a broad way, gives the GCSB pretty much carte blanche to do mass surveillance.”

“So, if the Law Society and others are right, that this law is very enabling and creates great powers for this agency to get into all of those kinds of communications, then it doesn’t really matter that you have all these oversight mechanisms because the oversight will be required to tick it off. If it’s lawful for them to get into all our communications, then, actually, the oversight groups will need to sign it off and agree to it. They have to tick it off.”

Dr Norman says individual privacy should be paramount.

“So, in the past, it used to be that we said individual privacy is protected, and if the state wants to intrude on individual privacy, they have to go to court, they have to produce reasons why they should. This legislation turns it all around, and it says, ‘No, the default position is they have access to all of that information.’ And, actually, they’ve required all the submitters to the select committee to say, ‘Oh, you’ve got to justify why we should defend privacy.’ That’s the wrong way around. Our privacy, individual privacy is where we start, and if the state wants to intervene on our privacy, read our emails, look at what we’re doing on the internet, they’ve got to have a really good reason.”

Asked why ordinary citizens aren’t protesting about this legislation, Norman said it is a “complicated piece of law”.

“People think, ‘Oh, it’s about Kim Dotcom.’ Actually, this is about all of us. And there’s another thing about this which I think isn’t really fully appreciated. This isn’t like the police. Like, the police are at an arm’s length from the minister. The minister can’t direct the police to do things, go and spy on that person, prosecute that person, whatever. The GCSB is absolutely under the direction of the Prime Minister. He controls it. So this is his own agency, and so that’s why it’s so much more dangerous to democracy, free speech and privacy because the Prime Minister of the day directly controls this agency.”

The Greens coleader says we need to look at what kinds of legislation is needed: “We don’t go, ‘Oh, the GCSB broke the law so we’re going to change the law to suit the GCSB.’ You go, ‘Actually, we’re going to design the law to do what we think is right, and then the GCSB has to work within in it.'"

Watch the full interview here.