NZ intelligence inquiry wide-ranging
An inquiry into intelligence gathering, in the wake of the Christchurch mass shootings, will include police, Customs and immigration agencies as well as the Government’s two spy organisations.
All those agencies have intelligence functions, said Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and the Security Intelligence Service (SIS).
‘‘We need to know whether there’s anything inside those organisations that meant that either they couldn’t see what was happening, or they simply didn’t see.
‘‘And if there were things that they should have seen that they didn’t, we need to know that,’’ Little told The AM Show yesterday.
The first funerals were held in Christchurch on Wednesday, after 50 people died when a gunman attacked two mosques in the southern city last Friday.
Little said the intelligence agencies did ‘‘a terrific job’’ but the Christchurch killer was able to plan, amass weapons, as well as travel overseas and throughout the country. ‘‘We need to know whether anything should have been seen, anything could have been seen that would have tipped us off to say there is something going on here. We’ve got to stop this in its tracks.
‘‘I know that the agencies, through the intelligence that they gather, they have prevented harmful activities in this country. They do do that, but this didn’t happen in Christchurch,’’ Little said.
He met the bosses of the intelligence agencies during the weekend. ‘‘I think they feel a huge sense of responsibility.
‘‘I don’t think they’ve done anything other than they could have done but they certainly feel it.
‘‘They certainly feel that there is a question to answer. They want that question answered.’’
An inquiry was needed, not just to reassure all New Zealanders, but also to reassure people in the agencies that have intelligence-gathering functions about whether there was something that could or should have been done differently.
‘‘There’s an obvious question: how could this happen, how could we not see this coming?’’
A reasonably quick answer was wanted to that, Little said.
Sayed, 30, is providing some free rooms to families that would be arriving this weekend to attend funerals.
‘‘It’s been very sad. There have been a lot of last-minute bookings, as well as cancellations. There will be more people arriving over the next two days, which I expect will be the busiest time when the burials take place.’’
In addition to relatives, there has been a small invasion of diplomats, government departments and representatives, as well as security personnel.
Bruce Garrett, manager of the George and Hotel Montreal, said the cancellations had mainly been by corporate and leisure travellers or people coming for cancelled events, such as last weekend’s rugby match.
‘‘However, we had a number of new bookings coming in . . .’’
Christchurch Airport was experiencing an influx of families while airline schedules remained unchanged.
House of Travel director Brent Thomas said his company had been busier arranging flights and accommodation for people going to Christchurch this week.
‘‘Business travel changed on Monday. A number of businesspeople had deferred trips out of respect and because it wasn’t appropriate under the circumstances.
‘‘It’s good to see the airlines come to the party. Longer term, we just don’t know.’’
‘‘It’s good to see the airlines come to the party.’’
Brent Thomas, House of Travel