Tonight the government is using urgency to erode New Zealander’s right to justice. It’s passing the Returning Offenders (Management and Information) Amendment Bill through all three stages in one session, thus avoiding scrutiny and the democratic responsibility to consult on legislation. Keep reading “Media release: Government passing Returning Offenders Bill under urgency tramples our rights”

The first reading of the Bill to add religious belief to New Zealand’s hate speech laws in the Human Rights … Keep reading “Opposing the Human Rights (Incitement on Ground of Religious Belief) Amendment Bill”

The Office of the Privacy Commissioner recently ran a consultation about the use of biometric technology in New Zealand. As … Keep reading “Biometric technology”

The Independent Police Conduct Authority has taken the opportunity to say that it needs substantially more powers to do its job of overseeing Police conduct. Keep reading “The IPCA has had enough of being ignored”

With the overreaching Data and Statistics Bill going to the Committee of the Whole House this week, the NZ Council for Civil Liberties has written to MPs asking them to pass amendments to fix the worst aspects. Keep reading “Media release: Last chance to fix the Data and Statistics Bill”

The deeply flawed Data and Statistics Bill has passed through the Governance and Administration Select Committee largely unchanged.  The Committee has fallen in line with the advice of Stats NZ and ignored the significant concerns raised by, amongst others, the Ombudsman, a former Government Statistician, and the NZ Council for Civil Liberties. Keep reading “Media release: Disappointment at Select Committee’s refusal to fix the Data and Statistics Bill”

The NZ Council for Civil Liberties is pleased that the Office of the Privacy Commissioner (OPC) has reacted to public pressure and made a late submission highlighting problems with the Data and Statistics Bill. In doing so, the Privacy Commissioner joins the Ombudsman, and the former Government Statistician Len Cook, in highlighting serious flaws in the Bill. NZCCL and Mr Cook have both called for the entire Bill to be withdrawn, and the Ombudsman has called for part 5 of the Bill to be scrapped. Keep reading “Media release: Privacy Commissioner joins Ombudsman and former Government Statistician in criticising the Data and Statistics Bill”