Search and Surveillance Act 2012

New Zealand's Search and Surveillance Act 2012 received Royal Assent on 5 April 2012, after being introduced in 2009. The three-year gap between the introduction of the Bill into Parliament and assent indicates the extent of the debates that occurred over the proposed extension of search and surveillance powers held by the State. A number of parties were concerned with the effect the Act would have on individual human rights, and the Green Party expressed the view that enforcement agencies were already abusing their powers. Others argued that the Act would make it easier to determine in each situation whether a lawful search had been carried out, as the law would be more clear and accessible if contained in just one instrument. Some parties believed that codification and clarification of the search and surveillance law would result in more compatibility with human rights.

The creation of the Search and Surveillance Act 2012 was considered necessary by the New Zealand Parliament. Previously, both police and non-police powers were found in a myriad of statutes and amendments that had developed in a "piecemeal fashion over a long period of time". In many circumstances, the correct legal test was difficult to ascertain, and rules would vary from one instrument to another. The New Zealand Law Commission said that because it is necessary for the State to exercise some coercive powers of surveillance, there must be requirements for regulation. Issues with the previous state of the law are exemplified in the case of Hamed & Ors v R, where uncertainty arose from the lack of statutory controls on police power in the area of visual surveillance.

The Law Commission also realised that much of the previous law was out of date; the coercive powers held by enforcement agencies were insufficient to deal with sophisticated organised crime, which often utilised advanced technology. The report focused on the fact that most information is no longer only available in a hard copy, and instead computer and internet networks are increasingly used for communicating information.

The Commission discussed at chapter two of the report the balance needed between human rights values and law enforcement values, where a "principled, values-based approach to search powers" is needed. The main Bill of Rights Act provision that was brought into question by the proposed Bill was s21, the right of individuals “to be secure from unreasonable search or seizure, whether of the person, property, or correspondence, or otherwise”. In the Search and Surveillance Act, any decision to exercise a search or seizure must be reasonable, as must the execution of the act. The Commission also recognized New Zealand's international commitment to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR). Four human rights values that the Commission felt the Bill potentially conflicted with were:

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