Monitoring by State in N.Z. forecast

Press, 12 July 1988, Page 22

Monitoring by State in N.Z. forecast

PA Wellington New Zealanders can expect legalised systems within five years which would allow State monitoring of their financial affairs, predicts an Australian civil liberties campaigner, Simon Davies. Convener of the Australian Privacy Foundation, Mr Davies believes New Zealand will inevitably follow Australia in its introduction of legal steps to monitor and restrict the cash economy announced in the Australian May mini Budget. Mr Davies believes the present “sense of doom” about New Zealand’s financial future makes it particularly vulnerable to the introduction of tax reforms aimed at tightening up on evasion and fraud, just as it had in Australia. “When a country is going downhill, it allows the Government to get away with things which (threaten) the integrity of the individual — and civil rights start going out the window.”

In Australia it had resulted in “an obsession with raising revenue, pursuing tax cheats and small businesses which evaded taxes.” As the arguments for tightening controls became unarguable, privacy and civil liberty concerns were “trampled underfoot.”

The privacy foundation, which was at the forefront of opposition to the Hawke Government’s pro-

posal to bring in national identity cards, is concerned at the infringements of privacy and civil liberties legalised surveillance would allow. The introduction of enhanced tax file numbers, which was one of the reforms announced in the Australian May mini Budget, would allow the tax department to have automatic input into people’s financial affairs through a whole range of mechanisms, Mr Davies said during a private visit to Wellington recently. These included requiring people to quote their tax file number when opening a bank account, applying for a job, trading shares, and buying a house, he said. “The enhanced tax file number gives the Government the capacity to collect information on virtually every aspect of your life.”

Although the Australian identity card proposal was thrown out last year after widespread opposition to its implications for civil liberties, the battle was won by default because it was stopped by legal loopholes, he said. The introduction of enhanced tax file numbers was a means of introducing Government surveillance “by stealth,” he said. He expected it would lead to identity cards once some form of integrity to support the tax file numbers became necessary.

The foundation also had grave concerns about the implications of the Cash Transactions Reports Act, which became law in Australia about a month ago, Mr Davies said. It contained a section which required bank staff to report to the tax office anyone they considered to be carrying out “suspicious” cash transactions. This had gone largely unreported until it was part of the law. “It is the creation of a government informer network, backed by the force of law and granting immunity from prosecution for anyone who dobs in a customer.”

“This dobbing-in campaign has now reached fanatic level (in Australia).” While it was now “too late” in Australia because the threatening controls could not be reversed, Mr Davies felt New Zealanders should become informed about the dangers and move to safeguard themselves against them.

The task here should not be as difficult as across the Tasman because the Government appeared happy to accept privacy and civil liberties as main issues.

But he felt if the Government v was serious about the issue, it had to consider some law which would guarantee permanent protection of privacy and civil liberties.

A strong, widespread political lobbying network was also needed to raise public awareness of the threats, Mr Davies said. “It is not good enough for it to be on the parttime agenda of concerned lawyers,” he felt.