Overturning the Supreme Court

Posted by Charles Chauvel on September 20th, 2011

National announced yesterday that it will introduce legislation under urgency to overturn the effect of the Supreme Court decision in Hamed v R – the appeal concerning the charges against the so-called “Urewera defendants”. The proposal is not to disturb the dismissal of charges against most defendants, or the confirmation of charges against the remaining 4. It is to suspend the general effect of the decision concerning police surveillance for a year. Under the proposal, Parliament would have the opportunity over the year to consider whether to legislate to further define what surveillance powers police should have, while the law reverted temporarily to the state it was in before the Supreme Court decision.

National didn’t consult any other parties, including Labour, over this proposal, or ask in advance for support for the decision. There is no legislation published or available for comment or review. If the proposal for urgency means not sending a bill to a select committee, there will be no opportunity for expert or public comment on whatever bill does get drafted.

Clearly there are issues arising out of the Supreme Court decision that Parliament needs to look at. The Court said as much.

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So apart from the question of whether the police will have the necessary powers to gather evidence relating to serious offending between now and whenever Parliament can review that issue, and just maybe what should happen to cases already in train, it seems to me there is no possible case here for legislating urgently, and certainly no case for preventing legislation going to a select committee for scrutiny and public and expert input.

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Full blog post at Red Alert >>

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