NZ to tighten up anti-terrorism act

The Terrorism Suppression Act is to be significantly revised to enable the Government to better implement United Nations counter-terrorism requirements, Helen Clark says.

The plan to change the law was revealed yesterday, during a speech by the Prime Minister to the Australian and New Zealand Society of International Law Conference.

The act implements obligations passed unanimously by the UN Security Council following the September 11 attacks.

It targets those who raise funds for terrorism, and provides for terrorists' property to be frozen.

It also requires New Zealand to deny safe haven to terrorists and to ensure those engaged in acts of terror are brought to justice.

Helen Clark said the Government was in the process of "updating and significantly revising" the act.

"Since its passage it has become clear that the legislation does not allow New Zealand to be as responsive as we would wish in implementing the changing requirements of UN counter-terrorism arrangements."

Amendments would be tabled in Parliament this year, she said.

Asked for further detail, a spokeswoman for the Prime Minister said the comments "relate to occasions when the UN adds an entity to its list of designated terrorist organisations. New Zealand is then obliged to treat it as a terrorist organisation. Currently it's done through a process of gazetting. This is too cumbersome, and the process needs to be more automatic."

A foreign affairs, defence and trade select committee review of the act last year identified other problems in the legislation, although it remained unclear yesterday whether they would also be tackled by the revision.

The act requires that all designations expire after three years unless extended by order of the High Court.

Officials told the committee there were a number of issues with the process.

If the court chose not to renew a designation, New Zealand could find itself in breach of its UN obligations.

The court's power to overturn a designation after a judicial review, and the Prime Minister's ability to revoke a designation, could also see New Zealand in breach of the UN, the officials advised.

At the time, Green MP Keith Locke argued officials were pushing an "undemocratic line".

He believed common sense and international law said otherwise, and New Zealand needed to retain the power to take designations off the terrorist list.

The UN had already admitted it had made erroneous designations, he said.

There is no evidence the law change flagged yesterday is designed to enable more alleged terrorists to be placed on the list.

However, National foreign affairs spokesman Murray McCully claimed the changes signalled were a "huge endorsement of the concerns that I've been expressing."

He has raised concerns that while other countries have added extra organisations to their terrorist lists, above those required by the UN, New Zealand has not yet done so.

Foreign Affairs Minister Winston Peters last week accused Mr McCully of misleading the public on the issue.

Mr McCully said yesterday: "I just hope that any terrorists focusing their attention on New Zealand are very, very lazy terrorists because this is taking a very long time."