By Rebecca Wright
The law that governs the Security Intelligence Service (SIS) is being updated to bring our spies into the 21st century.
But their new powers are going to be on a need-to-know-basis, and the Government has decided you do not need to know.
The SIS wants to know exactly who you are online and what you are getting up to there, so it is asking for new powers from the Government to enable it to snoop on the web.
It is just one of a raft of changes to the SIS legislation set to be debated tomorrow but we will not be there to report on it - the meeting is taking place in secret.
“Their evidence is always heard in private - unless there's a unanimous opinion reached by the committee to change that,” says Prime Minister John Key.
The Greens and Labour demanded the hearings be made public but they could not get the numbers.
“ACT, National and the Maori Party decided that that should be done in secrecy,” says Labour leader Phil Goff.
Green MP Keith Locke says the Government has treated the public and media with “contempt” by making the meeting private without explanation.
But Mr Key has defended his decision.
“Bluntly the reason for it is there are holes in the current legislation - now we can have that debate in the public about what those holes are or we can take submissions from people and we can fix them,” he says.
Those fixes relate mostly to bringing the agency into the modern age.
The bill will allow for interceptions of devices like mobile phones and computer surveillance - allowing spies to hack computers and spy online.
They will also be able to use electronic tracking devices, for example bugging a car, and pursue cyber identities and mobile phones - not just real people.
The snoops should have their new powers in time for the Rugby World Cup this year.
The meeting will take place in the Beehive tomorrow. It’s set down for the Prime Minister’s office. So while some submissions will be made public - that's where this discussion will stay.
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