National security and surveillance: the public impact of the GCSB Amendment Bill and the Snowden revelations in New Zealand

Robert Patman, Laura Southgate

    Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

    Abstract

    In New Zealand, Edward Snowden’s revelations about the extraordinary scope of the National Security Agency’s surveillance capabilities and the facilitating role of the Five Eyes alliance converged with increasing public concerns about the Government Communications Security Bureau Amendment and Related Legislation Bill in 2013. This generated an intense and sustained debate in the country about surveillance policy. It was a debate in which Prime Minister John Key has featured prominently. While apparently unable to clearly refute Snowden’s claims concerning mass surveillance in New Zealand, Key’s vigorous public interventions helped counter the short-term political and diplomatic fallout. However, the long-term impact of public concerns over the surveillance policies of the Key government may be much harder to predict in what is an intimate democracy, and the prospect of substantial political blowback cannot be ruled out.
    Original languageEnglish
    Pages (from-to)871-887
    JournalIntelligence and National Security
    Volume31
    Issue number6
    Early online date20 Oct 2015
    DOIs
    Publication statusPublished - 2016

    Bibliographical note

    This is an Accepted Manuscript of an article published by Taylor & Francis Group in Intelligence and National Security on 20 Oct 2015, available online at: http://www.tandfonline.com/10.1080/02684527.2015.1095968

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