Was this
http://tppwatch.org/2011/09/04/human-rights-commission-rejection-of-trans-pacific-partnership-audit-latest-blow-to-democratic-process/
related to this?
http://pirateparty.org.nz/forum/viewtopic.php?f=12&t=382
Is anyone clued up on what requests for information or legal challenges have been made in areas of interest to PPNZ such as ACTA, TPPA, ECHELON, etc., and/or what other groups are interested in these things? Are there requests for information or legal challenges that haven't been made but should be?

Even if it were stonewalled, an official stonewalling could itself be something to garner public interest.

e.g. If a clear concise request were made, backed by a decent number of signatures, about whether the Waihopai spy base domes are used to intercept personal communications without a warrant, and the response was "We can't tell you that.", this in itself could be very telling.

ECHELON covers all electronic communication, regardless of whether it is personal .
That is my main issue with surveillance I have been under since April 2000, it doesn't ignore personal conversations and it really is quite annoying to having privacy just because I do cryptography research. I really dislike the fact their espionage is orientated towards plagiarizing my research without acknowledgement of the fact that I wont see any credit for providing a better system than they have.
They'll say AES is strong enough, and besides, we use fiber optic
.
well, AES can be broken on 2nd gen i5 processor rapidly, and fiber optic can be eavesdropped on by quantum transistors

It's not enough for you to know this though, we need to present evidence that the general public will find credible, otherwise a lot of people will dismiss it. If we make an official request for an answer to a very specific question, and the question is dodged, then the implication would be pretty clear. If a fairly broad question is dodged, then the implication is not so clear.