New Zealand intelligence agencies

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New Zealand intelligence agencies have existed, with some interruption, since World War II. At present, New Zealand's intelligence community has approximately 500 employees, and has a combined budget of around NZ$80 million.

1 Intelligence groups
2 Oversight
3 Controversy
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Intelligence groups

[edit] Independent agencies

The Security Intelligence Service (SIS) is responsible advising the government on matters relating New Zealand's national security and interests, being charged with detecting espionage, terrorism, and subversion directed against New Zealand, and with gathering information about any activities by foreign governments or individuals which might affect New Zealand. It has the highest public profile of New Zealand's intelligence organisations, although it is actually smaller than the GCSB (below).
The Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) is based around signals intelligence and other communications espionage. Its main activity is the interception, decryption, and translation of the communications of foreign governments, including both satellite and radio signals. It is responsible for defending the New Zealand government against similar attempts by other countries, and from attempts at electronic eavesdropping.

[edit] Other organisations

The External Assessments Bureau (EAB) is responsible for collating and analysing information on foreign countries. This information is gathered from a number of sources, both public and secret — some of its work is simply the collection and interpretation of widely-available material, while other parts of its work draw on reports by diplomats and by other intelligence agencies. The External Assessments Bureau is part of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet.
The Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security (DDIS) is part of the New Zealand Defence Force, and is responsible for military intelligence. This includes both specific intelligence for use at the operational level and broad assessments of the military capabilities and intentions of other countries. It is also responsible for administering security clearances within the military, and for supervising the security of sensitive military property.
The Joint Geospatial Support Facility (JGSF), like the DDIS, is part of the Defence Force. It is responsible for geospatial intelligence, providing the military with geographic and mapping data. It also has a non-military role, providing hydrographic services to the public. Its military functions are directed by the DDIS, although it is organisationally independent of it.

[edit] Budgets and staff

Organisation	Approximate budget	Approximate staff
Government Communications Security Bureau	NZ$41.3m	300
Security Intelligence Service	NZ$43.5m	144
External Assessments Bureau	NZ$3.1m	30
Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security	NZ$1.8m?	32
Joint Geospatial Support Facility	?	?

(Budget figures from Treasury estimates in the 2006 Budget; staff figures from individual websites or from Securing our Nation's Safety, a December 2000 report by the DPMC)

[edit] Oversight

[edit] Ministerial responsibility

The Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau, being considered government departments in their own right, each have a Minister responsible for them. By tradition, the Prime Minister takes both these portfolios directly. The External Assessments Bureau, as part of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, is also under the Prime Minister's supervision — directly with regard to its intelligence functions, and indirectly (through the head of the department) for administrative purposes. The Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security and the Joint Geospatial Support Facility are the only ones not under the effective control of the Prime Minister — as part of the Defence Force, they are subordinate to the Minister of Defence.

[edit] Parliamentary scrutiny

The Intelligence and Security Committee is a committee of the New Zealand Parliament, although it differs from an ordinary Select Committee in that it is established directly by legislation. It consists of the Prime Minister, the Leader of the Opposition, two further MPs nominated by the Prime Minister, and one further MP nominated by the Leader of the Opposition. The committee meets much more rarely than ordinary Select Committees, however — according to some claims, for less than an hour each year [1].

[edit] Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security

The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security is a retired judge who is appointed to supervise the Security Intelligence Service and the Government Communications Security Bureau, ensuring that they remain within the law. The Inspector-General presents an annual report to the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.

[edit] Controversy

The operations, the organisation, and indeed, the existence of intelligence agencies in New Zealand has often been a source of controversy. While both major political parties (Labour and National) broadly support the current arrangements, there exists a movement which seeks an overhaul of the system, or even the outright abolition of New Zealand's intelligence agencies. The Green Party, for example, aims to abolish the GCSB and possibly the SIS — the functions of the former are deemed unnecessary and undesirable, while the functions of the latter are suggested as better performed by the Police.

New Zealand's intelligence agencies, particularly the SIS, have sometimes been accused of inappropriate activities. The cases of Bill Sutch, Aziz Choudry, and Ahmed Zaoui, for example, have all prompted claims that the SIS has violated individual rights. The extent to which the agencies are accountable to Parliament and to the public has also been questioned in some quarters [2]. Another common allegation, made by organisations such as the Green Party and the Anti-Bases Campaign, is that New Zealand's intelligence agencies are subordinated to their partner agencies in other countries, particularly the United States. The Green Party describes the Government Communications Security Bureau as working "for the benefit of American and British interests rather than for the benefit of New Zealand"[3], and the Anti-Bases Campaign calls them "simply outposts of American Intelligence".

Defenders of the intelligence agencies argue that they perform a necessary role, and that (in the words of former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer) "a robust legislative framework makes sure these agencies operate within the law". In 2006, the director of the GCSB, Warren Tucker, took the unprecedented step of publishing a general response to criticisms of his agency. The response, carried by national newspapers, strongly denied accusations that the GCSB was under the control of its foreign allies, saying that "the GCSB's actions have been and remain entirely consistent with, and subordinate to, the policies and interests of the New Zealand Government of the day". It defended New Zealand's connection with these foreign agencies, stating that "New Zealand enjoys immense benefits from its membership of this long-standing partnership", and similarly rejected allegations that the GCSB failed to keep the government properly about of its operations [4].