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Video Surveillance: Govt To Override Court
Video Surveillance: Government Plans To Override Supreme Court Ruling
The Government plans to pass urgent legislation to override a recent Supreme Court decision on covert filming.
The ruling, on the case of those charged after the Operation 8 raids in the Ureweras, found that video evidence was gathered by the police without any authority and by trespassing on Tuhoe land. This unlawful evidence was ruled inadmissible in the cases of those charged only with arms charges.
Justice Tipping said in the judgment that 'there was a deliberate or, at the very least, a reckless disregard for the boundaries of legal power' (quoted here, judgment here [PDF]).
Prime Minister John Key said today the government is seeking support for urgent legislation so that the ruling does not jeopardise ongoing investigations and trials. He told media the ruling would compromise about 40 court cases and 50 investigations.
The PM said the plan would mean the law "as understood" prior to the Supreme Court ruling would apply and video surveillance would be permissable.
In 2007 the Law Commission reported on NZ's search and surveillance regime, describing the regime as "a mess". The government's response, the Search and Surveillance Bill, is planned to be passed after the election.
Radio New Zealand National
audio:
The judgement
The supreme cout judgment (PDF) has been released, with some redactions, last week.
It begins with the opinion of Chief Justice Elias:
[1] The appeal concerns the powers of search of the police, raising points of constitutional principle and Bill of Rights protections. It can readily be accepted that the police need legal powers to investigate apparently serious criminal offending and that such powers may include powers of surveillance. Parliament has not however provided legislative authority for covert filmed surveillance, despite recommendations that it should do so. The courts cannot remedy the deficiency through approval of police action taken in the absence of lawful authority without destruction of important values in the legal system, to the detriment of the freedoms guaranteed to all.
More Radio NZ Audio:
The Government is moving swiftly to pass a law allowing police to use illegally gathered evidence in dozens of cases.
People caught up in the Urewera police raids believe Government moves to make covert filming lawful will further diminish trust in the legal system.
The Maori Party has accused the government of panic, over its plan to use urgency to retrospectively legalise the police's use of secret video surveillence.
The Attorney-General Christopher Finlayson rejects the idea that rushing legislation through Parliament is an assault on the rule of law.
The Government is to rush through a law that will retrospectively legalise the use of covert video surveillance by the police. Grant Illingworth is an Auckland barrister specialising in public law.
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