MEDIA RELEASE

Various points of view are healthy says Kapiti Mayor

MARCH 8, 2013.

Kapiti Mayor Jenny Rowan has welcomed the release of the joint Working Party’s paper on ‘Realising the potential of the Wellington region’, saying “bring on the debate.

“The Working Party has put forward two options for local government reform in the Wellington region – a single tier governing structure and a two tier structure.

“Clearly there are other points of view on what should or could occur. There is absolutely nothing wrong with that. An open debate about the merits of change is to be encouraged.

“The release of the Working Party’s report is part of the continuing debate.

“No decisions have been made one way or the other. The next step is for each Council to vote on whether to seek public comment on the two models contained in the Working Party report.

“My Council will discuss this at an extra Council meeting on March 14. I’m sure the debate will be vigorous and wide ranging.

“That is both the strength and challenge of democracy.”

ENDS

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Arguably Reassuring: Inspector-General Finds GCSB "Arguably" Legal

Of the 88 individuals:

• 15 cases involving 22 individuals did not have any information intercepted by GCSB.

• another four cases involving five individuals were the subjects of a New Zealand Security Intelligence Service warrant and the GCSB assisted in the execution of the warrants. The Inspector-General is of the view that there were arguably no breaches and the law is unclear.

• the Bureau only provided technical assistance which did not involve interception of communications, involving three of the individuals, so no breach occurred.

• the remaining cases involved the collection of metadata, and the Inspector-General formed the view that there had arguably been no breach, noting once again that the law is unclear.
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