Dear Nathan,

This matter on which I write is not a matter of left or right. It is a matter of wrong or right.

How is it that you have lost sight of what your community feels so that you are out of touch when you support a bill which will spy on every one of us? Why have you decided that we are so untrustworthy that you need to remove our basic human right of privacy? Where is the evidence to support this?

I am unable to understand the reasoning of the Prime Minister. It makes no sense to increase the powers of the GCSB when they have been found to be acting illegally. If I acted illegally I would be tried in court and punished accordingly. There is no logic here.

So can you please tell me why such broad-sweeping access needs to be given, when we already have a robust functioning system in place?
Why is this being rushed, without a proper thorough inquiry  and why the people are denied the opportunity to partake in the democratic process?

I have listened to what has been said by:
The NZ Law Society
The Privacy Commissioner
The Human Rights Commissioner
Dame Anne Salmond the New Zealander of the year.

I am more than concerned but am dismayed by the fact that New Zealand has been reported to the United Nations by the Law Society  for infringing our rights inherent in this bill – these actions taken by your government.

This is a country which has stood proud against apartheid, against nuclear weapons, against the tyranny of the Nazism – and now you propose to do exactly what the Nazis did – steal our human rights.

Shame on you for taking those hard fought rights from us. Shame on you if you dare to attend Anzac Day parades - for this Bill is exactly what my father and mother fought against.

Ann Chapman MNZM, JP