cryptogon.com

The move has brought accusations that the Government is passing laws behind closed doors.

But Prime Minister John Key says the bill must be passed before the start of the cup tournament, which many world leaders will be visiting.

“We’re not predicting instability but we have to have the right legislation in place,” he said.

His decision on the Security Intelligence Service Amendment bill side-steps the advice of the Privacy Commissioner that of review of the security laws should take up to three years.

Parliament’s security and intelligence committee, chaired by Mr Key, is expected to accept public submissions on the bill, but hearings will be held in private for security reasons.

“It won’t be in the public interest to have it open, for a whole bunch of reasons I don’t want to go into,” Mr Key said.

One MP yesterday said the move was unprecedented and offensive, claiming drunken fans would be the biggest problem at the World Cup.

The bill, which will be introduced on Thursday, aims to update the 41-year-old law on how warrants for SIS agents can be granted for actions such as intercepting text messages, monitoring computers and spying on people online.

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The threshold for granting warrants will not be changed, and Mr Key did not expect the bill to affect the average number of warrants – 11 to 15 – granted each year.

The present law has a rule of general permissibility, allowing SIS agents to do what is otherwise illegal if it is to protect national security.

But the Bill of Rights, which protects people from unreasonable search and seizure, meant the law had to be made more specific.

Green MP Keith Locke yesterday said he would make submissions to the security and intelligence committee and it was “offensive” that the public would be shut out from the hearings.

“New Zealanders should be worried that proposed changes give the SIS more power to covertly intercept communications, invade computers, and put tracking devices on people’s cars.