thoughts on the Snapper and the Spy agency

John Key says that we care more about snapper than the GCSB bill however I think that we are struggling to understand what this bill means in this era of digital information whereas is much easier to understand and thus respond to less fish for recreational fishers   However the issues in what resources are applied to spying on New Zealanders is a much more complex  issue

I know that the bill comes from the discovery that the external spy agency had been assisting the internal spy agency to get information about New Zealanders and that this was currently illegal.

They wanted to make it legal to use considerably greater resources of the external spying bureau to be used to spy on New Zealanders if there was an identifiable threat. Sounds pretty reasonable so what's wrong about that?
Given that the activity of spying inherently involves secrecy there are a range of difficulties :

1. who do we trust to make that decision?
2. what information will be used?
3. how will this information be sourced and shared?
4. how is this information sharing linked with foreign spy agencies with tools like prism

So with a bit of time available I  have been searching around to shed some light on the subject for myself and thought to share it

•  Is spying needed? There are some dangerous folk around but is this the tool that is needed?
  A Herald interview with Helen Clark gives some thoughtful reasons? I was interested that in the above interview Helen Clark said she never asked how the  agencies had got their information.
• Many people are concerned. This video shows edited highlights from a panel of  well informed speakers at a meeting on July 26
• What safeguards does the bill provide?  Rodney Harrison QC does a good summary of the different reasons for surveillance and what can be actioned in this bill and is not convinced by the current reassurances

John Key has reassured the "public that spies would not be able to routinely access the contents of emails" 
but can he do that? How will he know?

This issue highlights concerns that are arising internationally about the accessibility of information on the web and deserves to be given a thorough airing to assist all to understand rather than the current "trust me I know what I'm doing" attitude.
Meanwhile I am uncertain why recreational fishers are being targetted to reduce their catch of snapper when the commercial fishers aren't

ps just found this debate by others more articulate than I on pundit http://pundit.co.nz/content/john-key-and-those-gcsb-questions