20 Apr 2012

Calls for resumption of Terrorism Suppression Act review

8:30 am on 20 April 2012

Pressure is mounting on the Government to revive its abandoned review of the Terrorism Suppression Act.

The law is under renewed scrutiny following verdicts in the Urewera raids case, in which police couldn't apply the act because of insufficient evidence.

After the 2007 raids, the Solicitor-General criticised the act as complex and incoherent, but a review had barely begun when the Government scrapped it.

Tuhoe leaders have joined the Police Association and several legal commentators in calling for a restart to the review.

A lawyer, Tim McBride, says there has been little public accountability in relation to the act, and a decade on from its enactment is a good time to ask whether it remains relevant.