PM wants spy services to probe burglaries of academic
The Prime Minister has directed the intelligence agencies to look into claims by a Christchurch-based China expert who says she has been the target of several burglaries.
Last week the Herald revealed that University of Canterbury academic Anne-Marie Brady had told an Australian parliamentary committee that she linked her work to a spate of recent burglaries. She also said her sources on the Chinese mainland had been interrogated by state security officials.
Brady gained international attention in September after publishing research detailing the extent of China’s influence campaigns in New Zealand focusing on a nexus of political donations, appointment of directorships and information management.
Brady told the Australian Parliament her office on campus was broken into in December, and last week her home was burgled — with computers, phones and USB storage devices stolen while the thieves ignored other obvious valuables.
The latter event was preceded by an anonymous letter detailing pushback against those not toeing the official line out of Beijing and warning: “You are next.” The police are investigating. At her post-cabinet press conference yesterday, the Prime Minister said she first became aware of the affair through media reports and expressed alarm over Brady’s claims.
“I think anyone would be concerned [about] any criminal act if it were in response to the work she’s doing,” Jacinda Ardern said.
She said that as minister responsible for national security and intelligence she was following up the matter and would “certainly be asking some questions”.
Approached for comment, a representative of the Security Intelligence Service — the agency responsible for preserving national security domestically — reiterated they did not comment on individual cases.
The Prime Minister said she expected to be made aware of any developments in the case.
“I would certainly want to be informed if there was evidence this was a targeted action against someone who was raising issues around foreign interference . . . If there’s evidence of that we should be taking stock of that and taking action,” she said. The possibility that academic freedom was being threatened in such a heavy-handed manner also drew alarm from the university sector, with Sharn Riggs, the national secretary of the Tertiary Education Union, saying the claims were without precedent in New Zealand. “This is quite extreme, and obviously very concerning to have a member’s personal safety put in danger, but also from a policy perspective around academics’ right to investigate and publish in these areas.”
Riggs called on university vicechancellors to take a stand on the issue. “They need to ensure that staff who are researching in controversial areas have not just protection, but present in vocal way that this is what academics are and this is what they do.”
University of Canterbury vicechancellor Rod Car said in a written statement the university “takes the security, health and wellbeing of its staff and students seriously”.
A representative of the New Zealand Police declined to comment further as the burglaries were “under active investigation by Christchurch CIB”.