NZ spy watchdog says intrusive surveillance powers too broad
New Zealand’s spy watchdog says the intelligence agencies’ powers to intrusively monitor terrorist suspects are too broad.
Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security Brendan Horsley issued a report on the use of “class” warrants, targeting class or type of people rather than an individual, by the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), yesterday.
The report comes less than a week after Horsley raised an issue with the Government Communications Security Bureau’s mishandling of a foreign country’s spy system. It reiterated concerns previously raised by the inspector-general about how these warranted powers – which are permitted under the Intelligence and Security Act – are wielded against groups of intelligence targets.
SIS director-general Andrew Hampton has contested Horsley’s determination, saying it would be “irresponsible” not to use the warrants, “given the increasingly complex and dynamic threat environment that New Zealand faces”.
This latest scrutiny of the spy agencies also comes during a week in which the Government went public about Chinese state-backed hacking of Parliament, and aired further concerns about foreign interference in New Zealand’s democracy, including activity during the recent election targeting “unwitting” political candidates to build influence.
The Government last year received a review of the Intelligence and Security Act, which it commissioned to see how the law could be improved.
The review recommended, among other changes to spy powers, that so-called class warrants be retained but that the agencies be required to provide greater information about the group of people being targeted. It also recommended possibly changing the law to better clarify when a warrant against an individual is needed.
Alongside this, the Government is reviewing the country’s laws to tackle foreign interference, and considering whether foreign interference crimes should be entered into the Crimes Act. The National-led coalition Government has yet to outline how or when it intends to progress such national security policy work.
Horsley, in reviewing the first two uses of class warrants in 2022 and 2023, said these warrants were sought for “classes” of targets in respect to “high-risk counter-terrorism and violent extremism targets”.
“The warrants presented a new approach for the [SIS] to class warrants for counter-terrorism matters, whereby most if not all of its targets would now be managed under class rather than individual warrants.”
The warrants were directed at terrorism and violent extremism targets generally, and not specific ideologies, meaning that if a person fit a set of indicators, they could fall within the class.
“I was concerned that the classes used in the warrants lacked clarity and were too broad.”
Horsley said he would continue with an in-depth review of class warrants while the Intelligence and Security Act was being reviewed.
Hampton, in the statement, said the SIS continued to seek class warrants, though it was “mindful of the inspector-general’s observations, and have made several changes to documentation when seeking a warrant”.
Hampton was before Parliament’s Intelligence and Security Committee on Tuesday evening, and spoke of the agency’s concerns about people who posed terrorism and extremism risks that held “mixed, unstable and unclear ideologies”.
The SIS annual report, published yesterday, said the SIS began using this term for people throughout 2022-23, assessing people with such ideologies as having a “fascination with violence and the ease of access to a wide variety of violent extremist material online”.