Issues and Events in NZ

Covid 19

The past two years have been dominated by the Covid-19 pandemic and the strong measures governments have taken to limit its spread. In 2022 we saw this change with government switching to a much lighter hand, and most of the related special powers expiring as they were no longer relevant or desired. This has meant that we have spent much less time on it.

Data & Statistics Bill

Our largest campaign we ran this year was against the Data & Statistics Bill. It may sound inoffensive but it makes significant changes to how the government can capture and use data about everyone. You can read more about our concerns in our media release and the linked briefing to MPs.

While we didn’t succeed in our efforts to get the bill withdrawn or even amended, our campaign was not a failure on all fronts. The third reading was not unanimous with both ACT and Te Pāti Māori voting against. We put out a mass of well-written information, got significant media coverage, worked with other groups, recruited people to the cause, spoke directly to a number of MPs, wrote amendments, and generally got our message out there in a way which I believe has reflected well on us. The experience gained and connections made will prove invaluable in future campaigns.

Open Government Partnership

A substantial amount of work has gone into working on the next Open Government Action Plan in conjunction with other organisations and the government. 

The OGP is based on the idea that an open government is more accessible, more responsive, and more accountable to citizens, and that improving the relationship between people and their government has long-term benefits for everyone through better policies and services. From the Council’s perspective, open government is a key component in protecting and enhancing our rights and civil liberties. 

The Council has taken a leading role in helping drive the process forward. The current OGP action plan is now being finalised and we wait to see what the government has done with it. I hope that it is significantly more ambitious than in previous years.

Official Information Act

I once again note that the government is not doing a review of the Official Information Act, but it’s probably too late for this term anyway. A credible review would need involvement by a wide range of people and groups, and this would take significant time. A rushed review or one run by insiders would be worse than no review at all.

We’ve had our own battles with Ministers and government departments when it comes to getting information in a timely way. In particular we couldn’t believe it when the Ombudsman closed our long-delayed OIA complaint about the government’s failure to release key information about the introduction of vaccine certificates, on the grounds that there was now a new Minister for Covid-19 Response.  

We wrote to the Ombudsman expressing our concerns with both the huge delay and the clearly unreasonable dropping of the complaint. I am pleased to say that the Ombudsman responded and apologised for the handling of our complaint. They have now reopened our case and are investigating the issues that we raised.

We have a number of investigations open with the Ombudsman and will report back as those are finalised.

Actions of the Council

Some of the activities the Council was involved in this year include:

• Used our Twitter account @civillibertynz to push our views, events and publications. Please follow us if you don’t already. [ Secretary’s note 2024-11-22: we’re no longer on that platform]
• Appearing in the media discussing a wide range of topics over the year.
• Worked with Amnesty International and Just Speak to launch Aotearoa Justice Watch, to provide a way for people to report problems they experience in our policing and justice systems.

Submissions

We made numerous submissions on the following bills and other matters (all submissions are available on our website):

• Police Tactical Response Model
• DIA Long Term Insights Briefing on Participatory Democracy
• Digital Identity Services Trust Framework Bill
• Civil Aviation Bill
• Three Strikes Legislation Repeal Bill
• Oversight of Oranga Tamariki System and Children and Young People’s Commission Bill
• Data & Statistics Bill and followup submission and subsequent briefing.
• Review of the Search and Surveillance Act
• Smokefree Environments and Regulated Products (Smoked Tobacco) Amendment Bill
• Review of Standing Orders 
• National Security Strategy
• Criminal Activity Intervention Legislation Bill
• Criminal Proceeds (Recovery) Amendment Bill 

Internal Council matters

It’s been another year of the Exec Committee of the Council working well together. However we are still keen to add additional members and are particularly interested in finding people with experience in law and te ao Māori.

I hope you have noticed our new logo! It was a long process but we’re all very happy with the final result.

Our strategy session in January was successful. While we didn’t get everything done that we wanted to, it helped us focus our efforts on topics that mattered. 

It was disappointing to once again struggle with organising events and community building. Our plans for in-person events were hit by the pandemic and we didn’t manage to get any online events going. I hope to do better on this in 2023.

We welcomed three new life members: Nat Dunning, Batch Hales, and Tony Ellis. These three people have all contributed generously of their time and effort to the cause of civil liberties in New Zealand.

We hope you have found our semi-regular email newsletters interesting. Please contact the secretary if you haven’t been getting them.

Plans for the future

2023 is shaping up to be another big year. 

• Freedom of expression is in play with the government promising to progress both their media content regulation review and their proposed hate speech law changes. Both have the potential to go very badly wrong, providing little benefit while encroaching on freedom of speech.
• Government and corporate surveillance keeps increasing in methods and scope. As well as digital surveillance we also have biometrics such as facial recognition, and a surprisingly well developed system of financial surveillance.
• And whatever issues the general election brings up.

We will continue with the work we have been doing. However there is always room for improvement.

And, of course, we could always do with more help. You can join us or just help us on any individual issue. Please contact me at thomas@nzccl.org.nz

Regards, 

Thomas Beagle 

Chairperson, NZ Council for Civil Liberties