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Search & Surveillance Bill 2009There is a proposed new law before the Parliament that will greatly expand the powers of the state to conduct surveillance and require people to provide information.
This trend has serious implications for political activists.
This new law gives powers to an even wider web of non-police state agencies that have a law enforcement power, such as conservation, fisheries or labour. It is not difficult to see how these agencies come into conflict with activists and protest-related activities. The powers proposed under this Bill must relate to an alleged criminal offence, but that is not a difficult threshold to reach – trespass, for example, is a criminal offence that potentially carries a prison sentence. It will be relatively easy to repackage the monitoring and collecting of intelligence on political activities as ‘criminal surveillance’.
