Rare chance to peek behind spy door

PARLIAMENT’S secretive intelligence and security committee will throw its doors open today for a rare public hearing chaired by Prime Minister John Key.

Mr Key will chair the committee for at least the next two days in a move that will bring him face to face with internet giant Kim Dotcom, among others, as the Government seeks a law change allowing the Government Communications Security Bureau to spy on New Zealanders.

The GCSB was revealed to have spied on Dotcom illegally ahead of a raid on his Coatesville mansion last year. He will give evidence tomorrow.

The Dotcom case sparked an inquiry into the foreign intelligence agency’s operations which revealed it may have spied on as many as 80 other New Zealand citizens or residents illegally.

The Government says the GCSB believed it was acting within the law in those cases because it had been acting under warrants obtained by police, the Security Intelligence Service or Defence Force.

But it has suspended all domestic surveillance work by the GCSB while a law change extending its powers is rushed through.

The intelligence and security committee usually sits behind closed doors and its membership is confined to a select few including the leaders of National and Labour and nominated ministers or others, such as Green Party coleader Russel Norman, at the invitation of the prime minister.

Chaired by the prime minister, its business is usually considered top secret.

The GCSB legislation has been heavily criticised by groups including the Law Society, which say it gives the GCSB too much power.

The law change is being accompanied by broader changes, in- cluding beefing up the office of the Intelligence and Security Inspector-General.

Mr Key yesterday named former High Court judge Andrew McGechan as the new inspectorgeneral, replacing Paul Neazor, who is retiring after nearly a decade in the job.

Meanwhile, the Government faces fresh questions over an inquiry into the leaked GCSB report.

Ohariu MP Peter Dunne resigned last month as revenue minster after the inquiry by former top public servant David Henry put him under suspicion of leaking the report to Dominion Post journalist Andrea Vance.

Mr Key yesterday defended Mr Henry accessing Mr Dunne’s email traffic and said he had no sympathy for Mr Dunne’s complaint that he did not give permission.

‘‘When people swear the oath of allegiance, they understand exactly what was expected of them and the terms and conditions [of the inquiry] spelt out absolutely in plain English what was going to happen and what information was going to be looked at. And that included email traffic.’’

It has also been revealed Mr Henry accessed electronic records relating to Vance’s movements around Parliament, but Mr Key said he did not condone that.

Parliamentary Service yesterday refused to say under whose authority Vance’s records were released or on how many other occasions it has accessed information about the movements of journalists or MPs, and for what purpose.

Opposition MPs say they will seek urgent clarification with Parliament’s Speaker and Fairfax Media has also written to Parliamentary Service for an explanation.

The organisation representing press gallery journalists also seeks a meeting with the Speaker.