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BLENHEIM - About 50 protesters have renewed calls for the Waihopai spy station near Blenheim to be closed.
Holding a spies' picnic at Waihopai, the protesters poked fun at the secretive nature of the base.
Spooks and secret squirrels paraded their costumes for onlookers. The lineup included two Green Party MPs, Rod Donald and Keith Locke.
Mr Donald, the party's co-leader, repeated his call for the base to be closed, calling it insidious and unnecessary.
He said it cost taxpayers $20 million a year to eavesdrop on international communications and then pass the information to America, Britain, Canada and Australia.
The Waihopai station intercepts international faxes, e-mails and phone calls with equipment able to pick out key words to monitor communications.
Mr Donald said the Waihopai spy base was set up under a Labour Government in which Prime Minister Helen Clark was a minister.
He said the Prime Minister at the time, David Lange, had since admitted he was not told the extent of what would be done at the base and had indicated that he would not have been so happy about the proposal if he had known all the facts.
Mr Donald called on the present Labour Government to review the Government Communications Security Bureau that runs Waihopai.
Mr Locke, the Greens' defence and disarmament spokesman, also called for an inquiry into the base.
He said he had attended Waihopai protests for many years and one of his main objections was how domestic privacy was able to be invaded with no real controls.
The international eavesdropping at Waihopai also distorted our relations with other countries.
- NZPA
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