Does Danyl want the GCSB to have the power to spy domestically?

Danyl at Dim-Post blogged:

The justification for the expansion of the GCSB’s powers back in 2013 to give them the power to spy on New Zealanders was that there are ‘bad guys’ in our country. Terrorists. Radicals. Evil-doers who would harm innocent civilians or attack the economic infrastructure of the country to further their own deranged agenda.

What the GCSB is actually doing, we’ve learned from the Snowden leaks, is spying on New Zealanders – and everyone else – in Tuvalu, and Kiribati, and the Cook Islands, and the Antarctic research bases. And at the same time the police appear powerless to apprehend an individual or group threatening to murder babies and cripple the New Zealand economy by poisoning infant milk powder.

It is almost beyond doubt that the person or persons responsible is a New Zealander. This means that the GCSB can’t intercept their communications – both under the new and the old law.

So Danyl holding them up as a failure of the GCSB is bizarre. It is like blaming the Ministry of Education for the fruit fly problem.

The recent law change merely explicitly gave the GCSB the ability to provide technical support to other agencies such as the Police and SIS – if there is a warrant.

As no one knows who the person responsible is, then there can be no warrant to intercept their communications, so it is no surprise that the Police have not been able to locate them.

If in fact the GCSB did have the awesome powers and abilities that hysterical people claim they have, then it is possible the person responsible would have been located. So I can only assume this is what Danyl is demanding – greater powers for the GCSB.