The Foreign Affairs, Defence and Trade committee has called for submissions on the Countering Terrorist Fighters Legislation Bill. Submissions can be made via the online form and are due by Thursday, 27 November 2014.
Yes, that's right. An important bill with major human rights implications, and we have one day to speak up about it. The consistency of this with our democratic norms is left as an exercise for the reader.
Still, we need to submit. While National is wholly committed to the spy deep state, its support partners and opposition parties aren't. Every other party is extremely uncomfortable with these measures. And while the committee has a solid National majority and will rubberstamp whatever the Prime Minister wants, there's a good chance that the bill will at least be toned down in order to secure a majority for the second reading. While I'd prefer to see it defeated (and the spies who asked for it sacked and their agencies disbanded), any improvement would be good.