Spying on Kiwis is ok if “the responsible Minister” says so – this was how the Herald described today’s announcement from John Key regarding the GCSB clean-up Bill.
Responsible Minister? Yeah right -that’s an oxymoron when applied to John Key. Was he responsible when Dotcom was illegally arrested? Was he responsible when Bill English signed off on the warrant attempting to keep the GCSB involvement in the debacle? He was so responsible that he didn’t know Dotcom lived in his electorate, hadn’t heard that the FBI had any interest in him, took no interest in the case and nobody had told him anything about it!
God knows what he was able to say to Obama or ex-Senator Dodd, now Motion Pictures Association lobbyist, when the subject of Dotcom came up.
Today Key tried the good old “cybersecurity” smokescreen, ramping up the numbers – of course there will be some probes from abroad around the edges of what intellectual property is still held in New Zealand. But this is a long way from cyber-spying on Kiwis – something members of all parties were absolutely insistent should be and would be avoided, when the GCSB legislation was passed.
This will be a real test for Winston. Key needs him desperately to get anything through. To give Peter Dunne credit, he has stood up for an independent system. The only other group that have come out of this with any credibility intact are the judiciary.
Ultimately Labour is right. There is no need to panic, and there should be a proper inquiry before any legislation is proposed or introduced. Its a real opportunity for Winston to be statesmanlike once again – he has been so before.
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