Thursday, December 10, 2015



Getting married is not terrorism

Radio New Zealand reports breathlessly that none of the SIS's supposed "Jihadi brides" has had their passport cancelled - meaning they could be "free to return to New Zealand". Well, of course they haven't, and of course they are. Cancelling a passport requires that a person be a danger to the security of New Zealand (or another country) because they intend to engage in "a terrorist act within the meaning of section 5 of the Terrorism Suppression Act 2002". To point out the obvious, getting married is not terrorism.

As for the "problem" of "returning to New Zealand", every New Zealand citizen has the right to enter New Zealand at any time, and the government is required to facilitate this by issuing emergency travel documents even to people whose passports they have cancelled for "terrorism". More generally, the idea that we can or should effectively exile New Zealanders from their own country is abhorrent, and Radio New Zealand should be ashamed of themselves for propagating it.