By Lloyd Burr
The ACT Party will not support the Government’s plan to pass legislation under urgency, which suspends the Supreme Court decision in the Urewera case, unless it goes through a select committee process.
ACT’s Parliamentary leader John Boscawen says his party is “not prepared to give the Government a black cheque”.
“The Act Party has been considering the issue of urgent legislation to overcome the effect of the Supreme Court decision in the Urewera case,” he says.
“We believe that this legislation, as proposed by the Government, would have serious consequences and we advised the Government this afternoon that we would like it subjected to an urgent select committee hearing.
“We envisage a hearing over some 36-48 hours and believe it is possible for a select committee to properly hear evidence on this bill and then to have any bill passed before Parliament rises on the sixth of October,” Mr Boscawen says.
“In terms of procedure, I’m advised that if the Government chose to introduce the legislation under urgency next Tuesday, it could be referred to a select committee which could meet as early as Tuesday night.
“[They] could report back to the House next Thursday for the second reading, committee stages and then third reading could then continue under urgency.
“I should add that we haven’t actually been given a copy of the legislation at this stage,” he says.
Prime Minister John Key announced on Monday that “almost all use of covert video surveillance by the police is rendered unlawful” after the Supreme Court ruled that evidence from secret video surveillance on Maori land in the Ureweras was illegally obtained.
The ruling meant police dropped charges against 13 of the 17 people accused from the raids on supposed ‘military training camps’ in 2007.
Mr Key wants to pass a piece of legislation under urgency next week that temporarily suspends the decision and reinstates secret filming by the police.
But Mr Boscawen says National will not have the numbers to pass it under urgency.
“The Labour Party said to National that they wouldn’t support it unless there was a select committee hearing and my understanding from the media is that the Mana Party, the Maori Party and the Green Party have said they won’t support it,” Mr Boscawen says.
“We don’t believe that this legislation has to pass to bring serious criminals to court because we don’t believe that anything in the Supreme Court decision would require that.
“Having said that, we are aware that the police have turned off their cameras in respect of some 50 odd operations,” he says.
“If the ACT caucus was happy with the legislation as it came out of the select committee, we would support it absolutely.
“It is up to the Government to decide which procedure they follow but we have advised the Government that we are not prepared to support it unless there is some form of information gathering and review,” Mr Boscawen says.
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