[Imc-aotearoa-ed] Re: Finn!! more on the terrorism bill

[finn c.]

Thanks :) I'll forward these to the ed group.

finn

On Fri, 11 Oct 2002 08:26:10 +1300
Peace Movement Aotearoa <pma@xtra.co.nz> wrote:

> good morning to you finn, am just sending you a couple of articles re the 
> passing (yes it's sad but true) of what is now called the 'Terrorism 
> Suppression Act' - I think that's what it will be called, as it went 
> through parliament as the Terrorism Suppression Bill. Was thinking about 
> the vast amount of material you'd have to trawl through to write about the 
> accursed thing, maybe the easiest is to write something short and put a 
> link through to http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/terrosub.htm  Will leave it 
> up to you, I'll be updating the page later today, and changing the layout 
> so it's a little clearer .....
> 
> onwards, Edwina
> 
> 
> Parliament passes tough anti-terrorist laws
> 
> 10 October 2002
> 
> Parliament today passed strong anti-terrorist legislation, with only the 
> Green Party opposed to the new measures.
> 
> Justice Minister Phil Goff said the laws would allow New Zealand to take 
> every step it could against international terrorism, in line with United 
> Nations conventions and Security Council resolutions.
> 
> "International terrorism is the greatest contemporary threat to 
> international security and peace," he said.
> 
> "This legislation has been passed by every country in the world with which 
> we identify."
> 
> He said it did not contravene individual liberties in the way the Greens 
> were claiming, and he accused Green MP Keith Locke of "turning a blind eye" 
> to the threat of terrorism.
> 
> The Terrorism (Bombings and Financing) Bill - which was today re-named the 
> Terrorism Suppression Bill - had the support of all the parties in 
> Parliament except the Greens, and was given its third reading on a vote of 
> 106-9.
> 
> Mr Goff said it would criminalise terrorist bombings and the financing of 
> terrorist organisations, make it an offence to recruit and take part in a 
> terrorist movement and allow funding to be frozen and forfeited.
> 
> During debate last night, and again today, Mr Locke said the bill's 
> provisions undermined individual liberty and threatened lawful protests.
> 
> He said his party was not opposed to action against terrorism, but did not 
> believe that separate legislation was needed for that.
> 
> "Action should be taken within the criminal law of this country...we don't 
> want a separate law structure for politically-motivated crimes," he said.
> 
> Mr Goff, and National Party MPs, described the Greens' attitude as a 
> disgrace and said terrorism could not be dealt with under the Crimes Act.
> 
> National MP Lockwood Smith said the bill went to extraordinary lengths to 
> protect individual liberties, and it was a pity Parliament could not pass 
> it unanimously.
> 
> Dr Smith said the Greens were usually the first to demand that New Zealand 
> sign up to international conventions, but in this case were opposing 
> resolutions passed unanimously by the UN Security Council.
> 
> "It is shameful ... their obnoxious amendments would have made it 
> impossible for New Zealand to comply with those resolutions," he said.
> 
> The Greens put up several amendments to the bill. All of them were heavily 
> defeated after Labour and National MPs said they would gut the legislation.
> 
> Labour MP Graham Kelly, who was chairman of the committee which examined 
> the bill and heard more than 100 public submissions on it, described Mr 
> Locke's remarks about individual liberties as "hogwash".
> 
> "We don't live in a perfect world. September 11 has forced us to take 
> action to stop such events happening again," he said.
> 
> "The Crimes Act is not sufficient. We need teeth, and now we've got teeth."
> 
> © Independent Newspapers Limited 2002
> http://www.stuff.co.nz/stuff/0,2106,2076148a6160,00.html
> 
> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
>                       Peace Movement Aotearoa
>            the national networking peace organisation
>       PO Box 9314, Wellington, Aotearoa/New Zealand
> Tel +64 4 382 8129, fax 382 8173 email pma@xtra.co.nz
>       PMA website - http://www.converge.org.nz/pma/
>      Internet Peace Gateway - http://www.peace.org.nz
> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
>              >> war on terrorism? war is terrorism <<
> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <> <>
> 
> 
> 


finn

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