New Zealand Security Intelligence Service


The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service is New Zealand's primary national intelligence agency. It is responsible for providing information and advising on matters including national security and foreign intelligence. It is headquartered in Wellington and overseen by a Director-General, the Minister of New Zealand Security Intelligence Service, and the parliamentary intelligence and security committee; independent oversight is provided by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.
SIS was established on 28 November 1956 with the primary function of combating perceived increases in Soviet intelligence operations in Australia and New Zealand. Since then, its legislated powers have expanded to increase its monitoring capabilities and include entry into private property. Its role has also expanded to include countering domestic and international terrorism, chemical, biological, and cyber threats.
The organisation has been criticised for its role in numerous high-profile incidents such as the 1974 arrest of Bill Sutch on charges of spying for the Soviet Union, the 1981 assassination attempt by Christopher Lewis on Queen Elizabeth II, and the 1996 invasion of GATT Watchdog organiser Aziz Choudry's home. It has also been criticised for its failures to anticipate or prevent incidents such as the 1985 bombing of the Rainbow Warrior, the 2004 purchasing of New Zealand passports by Israeli "intelligence contract assets", and the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings by an Australian alt-right white supremacist terrorist.

History

Origins and predecessors

In the first half of the 20th century, domestic intelligence and counter-subversion were primarily in the hands of the New Zealand Police Force and the New Zealand Police Force Special Branch. During the Second World War, the short-lived New Zealand Security Intelligence Bureau took over. The SIB was modeled after the British MI5 and was headed by Major Kenneth Folkes, a junior MI5 officer. However, the conman Syd Ross duped Major Folkes into believing that there was a Nazi plot in New Zealand. After this embarrassment, Prime Minister Peter Fraser dismissed Folkes in February 1943 and the SIB merged into the New Zealand Police. Following the end of the war in 1945, the police force resumed responsibility for domestic intelligence.
On 28 November 1956, the First National Government established the New Zealand Security Service. Its goal was to counter increased Soviet intelligence operations in Australia and New Zealand in the wake of the Petrov Affair of 1954, which had damaged Soviet-Australian relations. The NZSS was again modeled on the British domestic intelligence agency MI5 and its first Director of Security, Brigadier William Gilbert, was a former New Zealand Army officer. Its existence remained a state secret until 1960.

Formalisation and expansion of mandate

The NZ Intelligence Community developed further in the late 1950s due to growing concerns about political terrorism, improvements in weaponry, news media coverage, and frequent air travel. As terrorist threats grew, along with potential connections to wider groups, the adoption of counter-insurgency techniques increased in New Zealand. In response to this, the New Zealand Parliament enacted the 1961 Crimes Act to allow improved targeting of possible terrorist suspects and scenarios. In 1969 the NZSS was formally renamed the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. That same year Parliament passed the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Act to cover the agency's functions and responsibilities.
Various amendments were later made to the Security Intelligence Act, including the controversial 1977 amendment under Prime Minister Robert Muldoon, which expanded the SIS's powers of monitoring considerably. The 1977 Amendment Act defined terrorism as: "planning, threatening, using or attempting to use violence to coerce, deter, or intimidate". The Immigration Amendment Act of 1978 further expanded the definition of terrorism.
In 1987, Gerald Hensley, Chair of the NZIC, stated that the State Services Commission became attracted to the concept of "comprehensive security", taking into account not only human-made threats such as terrorism but also natural hazards. This was also a response to the severing of intelligence-sharing arrangements New Zealand had with the United States in 1985 over nuclear policy. Following the attempted hijacking of an Air New Zealand flight and the bombing of the Rainbow Warrior in 1985, Parliament enacted the International Terrorism Act 1987. The Act gave censorship powers to the government around matters of national security and terrorism. This was a significant departure from New Zealand's previous conformance to international norms and laws.
At the end of the 20th Century and beginning of the 21st, the NZIC adapted to emerging chemical, biological, and eventually cyber threats. These three areas became a key point of integration between the intelligence community agencies. Cases of terrorism overseas promoted the NZ Intelligence Community to regularly exchange information and meet the growing demands of addressing non-state actors.

Purpose

The SIS is a civilian intelligence and security organisation. Its stated roles are:
  • To investigate threats to security and to work with other agencies within Government, so that the intelligence it collects is appropriately used and threats which have been identified are disrupted
  • To collect foreign intelligence
  • To provide a range of protective security advice and services to Government.
As a civilian organisation, the SIS's remit does not include enforcement. Its role is intended to be advisory, providing the government with information on threats to national security or national interests. It also advises other government agencies about their own internal security measures, and is responsible for performing checks on government employees who require security clearance. The SIS is responsible for most of the government's counter-intelligence work.
In 2007, it was reported that the SIS wished to expand its role into fighting organized crime.

Organisation

The SIS is based in Wellington, with branches in Auckland and Christchurch. It has close to 300 full-time staff.
The Director-General of the SIS reports to the minister of New Zealand Security Intelligence Service. Independent oversight of its activities is provided by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security.

Directors

The SIS is administered by a Director-General., it has had eight directors general:
The SIS has been involved in a number of public incidents and controversies.

Bill Sutch affair

In 1974, the SIS was the source of information that led to the arrest of Bill Sutch, an economist and former civil servant, on charges of spying for the Soviet Union. Sutch was acquitted and the SIS was criticised for having accused him, although it has also been alleged that the SIS was correct in its accusation. The SIS released most of its files on Sutch in 2008.

1981 Springbok tour

In 1981, the SIS was criticised for drawing up a list of 15 "subversives" who participated in protests against the 1981 Springbok Tour, a visit by South Africa's apartheid rugby team. Characterising individual protesters as "subversives" was deemed by many to be a violation of the right to protest government decisions.

1981 briefcase leak

Also in 1981, an SIS operative inadvertently left a briefcase, containing a copy of Penthouse, three cold meat pies, and notes of a dinner party hosted by a German diplomat, on a journalist's fence in Wellington, where it was found by the son of another journalist, Fran O'Sullivan.

1981 attempted assassination of Queen Elizabeth II

In March 2018, the SIS released a memo confirming that an assassination attempt was made on Queen Elizabeth II during her 1981 visit in Dunedin despite alleged efforts by the New Zealand Police to cover up the incident. The perpetrator was 17 year-old Dunedin teenager Christopher Lewis. Lewis electrocuted himself in prison in 1997 while awaiting trial for an unrelated murder.

1985 ''Rainbow Warrior'' bombing

In 1985, the SIS failed to prevent the French operation in which DGSE operatives bombed the Greenpeace vessel Rainbow Warrior, killing a photographer.

1980s Cold War embassies espionage operations

In early June 2020, Radio New Zealand reported that the NZSIS had raided the Czechoslovak embassy in Wellington in 1986 as part of a joint operation with the British Secret Intelligence Service to steal Warsaw Pact codebooks in order to break into the encrypted communications of Soviet-aligned countries during the Cold War. This operation would have breached the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations. This revelation came to light as a result of an RNZ podcast series called The Service, produced by Wellington writer and documentary maker John Daniell, whose mother and step-father had both worked for the NZSIS. Daniell said that his step-father was involved in the raid and had claimed it was a success. Daniell's account was corroborated by Gerald Hensley, who served as the head of the Prime Minister's Department under the-then Prime Minister David Lange, and former NZSIS officer Kit Bennetts. In response, both former Prime Minister Helen Clark and Andrew Little, who is the Minister in charge of the NZSIS and Government Communications Security Bureau, refused to confirm that they had authorised raids on embassies based in New Zealand. RNZ also reported that the SIS had spied upon Labour MP Richard Northey under the pretext of his support for racial equality and nuclear disarmament. At the time of the spying, Northey was chair of the Justice and Law Reform Select Committee, which was responsible for financial oversight of the SIS, and of legislation altering its powers.