Sunday, July 06, 2008

One more loose cannon on a pirate ship

Act release their Crime & Punishment policy at the regional conference in Wellington today and, Boom Shanka, I'm resigning from Act (again). Specifically:

"Just look on the internet at the publicly available version of 'Google Earth' to see how much can be seen via satellite. It is easy - if we have the right relationship with our traditional allies and they provide us with intelligence - to observe the movement of cars and individuals without the need for kicking in doors or planting bugs and GPS locators (although, clearly, the latter technologies have their role).

Power consumption analysis can show potential hydroponic growing operations, and crowd motion studies via satellite or covert filming can identify 'tinnie houses' or other sites of interest. Infra-red and related technologies can reveal certain types of illegal activity - but it is naïve to expect that staking out these sites will turn up a high-level gang boss, who will never be seen in those places."

The speech was going competently enough until these chilling ideas were introduced. This is not America, and I'll be damned if I'll support anyone who wishes to pollute this country's privacy with such notions. So what if Sweden has seen fit to legislate wiretapping of its citizens? So what if Britain is nuts for CCTVs? THIS IS NEW ZEALAND!

And forget about heat signatures from hydroponics. While Labour's changing the lightbulb from filament to fluoro, the growers are switching from Metal Halide to LEDs. No heat, no power bill. You guys have no idea what's coming.