One of the most exciting prospects of any possible MANA-Internet Party alliance is the total revision of our mass surveillance state by pulling NZ out of America’s 5 eyes of Mordor arrangement.
The Internet Party’s first draft policy on the GCSB was released this week with a solid desire to look at pulling out of the 5 eyes arrangement.
How NZ balances America and China as they look to the Pacific as their new cold war friction point is one of the most important foreign affairs challenges facing NZ. China wants control over NZ by being our largest dairy consumer while assimilating our Political class with wealthy Chinese businessmen in a way that makes the Borg like inefficient while America wants to force us into a ‘free trade’ deal via the TPPA which will make our economic sovereignty a joke and give their corporations free reign over NZ.
It is impossible to resolve this challenge without taking a long hard look at our role in America’s 5 eyes spying arrangement. Last year the anger at what the Government were proposing with their mass surveillance powers was enough to fill the Auckland Town Hall, a rare feat in NZ politics. What will be necessary for that anger to reignite are the Snowden NZ revelations due to be released at around the same time Kim Dotcom’s evidence against Key are heard. The combination of those revelations with the possible deal between MANA and the Internet Party mean the chances of revoking the mass surveillance powers AND radically reviewing our role in the 5 eyes are genuine.
Watch for new actions against the GCSB to ensure this issue is on the political radar for the election.
NZ should be an independent nation, not a spying stooge for the bloody yanks. Wellington should be controlled by NZ, not Washington or Beijing.
If Dotcom can fix the GCSB he’ll have more than pulled his weight for this country & if he can do something about Telecom – preferably obliterate it – he should be knighted.
Dotcom vs. The GCSB, or is it GCSB vs Dotcom?
The campaign against the GCSB and 5 eyes will suffer a serious blow if the GCSB succeed in their campaign to illegally extradite Dotcom out of the country. This is why the Left must rally around to defend Dotcom from extradition into the US gulag.
A repeal of the GCSB law change would of course be welcome, and a review of the international intelligence co-operation New Zealand is engaged in, would also make sense to many. I certainly would expect an amendment of the NZ Bill of Rights Act (BORA) to offer more protection from state agency and other abuse of privacy and other basic rights.
But this consideration put forward here, it will mean very little, unless we will have Labour and David Cunliffe come to the party. As I recall, Cunliffe is in favour of a review of all intelligence practices and of the GCSB legislation presently in place. But I doubt very, very much, that this will lead to a cut out of the fifth eye in the so-called Five Eyes network. At best a moderate change in the way SIS and GCSB may work with the other parties involved, but I think that Labour and David Cunliffe will not cut ties with the US, UK, Canada and Australia in this area.
Without Labour coming to the party, you may as well forget all this, as it will then never happen. Labour will simply swallow it’s pride and besides of working with the Greens seek a confidence and supply arrangement with NZ First, under whatever terms, I fear.
And we know that Winston Peters is not going to stop all spying, and stop working with the US in this area.
Whether there will be 2 to 3 or 4 Mana and/or Internet Party MPs in Parliament will not make much of a difference, I tell you, as only the Greens may warm to their ideas to some degree. That will not be enough leverage to force a new government to deliver on what IP and Mana may wish.
And we are still waiting for the other policies that the IP wants to present, so what is happening with that? Again, I think all this talk about cooperation with the IP may be a bit too risky, and should Kelvin Davis manage to oust Hone from his Maori seat, then it will all have been a waste of time.
We could be in for many more surprises, with and without Snowden revealing more on spy practices, and it may be closer to home, in the political arena here, that may bring unexpected changes in the set of cards.
I think the biggest hurdle to get over first is:
“Will Hone even get back into parliament?”
There is every sign that he wont. Hones style doesnt lend itself to parliamentary campaigning. Hes out there ranting on all the time – and his ranting is starting to get a bit boring – especially to those who he wants to appeal to. I think the polling is starting to show that votes will go back to the Legacy parties. ie: Maori party votes will creep back to labour, NZ First votes will creep back to national, etc. And I cant see the ‘missing million’ getting back to the polling booth – why should they. Labour are saying nothing new that would excite them (yet…?) and the belief that Dotcom potential voters will get out is – I think – cloud nine thinking. They dont know how to vote.
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