Rotten to the core: The chilling truth revealed by the SSC report

Wednesday, 19 December 2018

Russel Norman says some of his Greenpeace staff were left frightened after being followed home and two years on still check over their shoulder wherever they go.

OPINION: The State Services Commission's shock report into government department use of spy agencies has left us with one stark truth: That here in little old New Zealand, the state has been assisting in systematic and oppressive Stasi-like surveillance for years.

On Tuesday, State Services Commissioner Peter Hughes released the results of a months-long investigation, which kicked off in March after state insurer Southern Response was discovered using controversial spy agency Thompson & Clark (TCIL), to undertake covert surveillance on Christchurch earthquake victims.

But soon the rot really started seeping out of the woodwork. More and more victims of this kind of government assisted or supported spying came forward, and soon the investigation was expanded to include all government departments.

* Use of private investigators exposes carelessness about role of the government

* Southern Response boss resigns before meeting with Minister

* Call for inquiry into 'problematic' police use of private investigators

* Greenpeace calls for Govt inquiry into spy agency to include MBIE**

The rotten truth has finally come out. Seven government departments have been discovered to be not acting in accordance with the State Services Code of Conduct while engaging with a spy agency that acted unlawfully, at the expense of ordinary citizens. So far, it's led to a Serious Fraud Office investigation, a police complaint, and the resignation of the boss of Southern Response.

But the impact of these revelations will be far further reaching. The chilling effect of being under constant and intrusive surveillance for simply campaigning on important social issues, fundamentally corrodes what it means to live in a free and democratic society.

We've learnt that under the previous government, no-one was safe from being spied on if they disagreed with government policy.

The State Services Commission (SSC) investigation may well be one of the most important examinations into the inner workings of the state that we've seen in New Zealand. I'd go as far as to call it our Watergate moment.

Other victims of these covert spy operations include state abuse survivors, iwi, animal rights and climate activists, and even opposition MPs and political parties.

Tracking devices were put on the cars of some members of Animal Freedom Aotearoa. The device pictured was traced to Thompson & Clark.

I've seen the effects of what this sort of Stasi-like infiltration can have on ordinary people first hand.

Back in 2017, Greenpeace received information that suggested TCIL had been watching our staff and volunteers on an almost daily basis for years.

We learnt that oil companies we opposed, including Anadarko and Equinor ( formerly Statoil), had paid the spy agency to gather a broad range of information about us.

The material we subsequently gathered revealed evidence of an extensive, indiscriminate operation on Greenpeace. It showed our people had been followed to their homes, tailed in their personal time, unlawfully had their car registration plates checked, and had their privacy breached in unacceptable ways.

What's worse, we discovered that the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment (MBIE) was party to some of these dealings.

At the time, people in the Greenpeace family were frightened. Staff felt nervous walking to and from work, and, two years on, some still feel like they have to check over their shoulder wherever they go. The impact of people being followed home at all hours of the day and night by spies creeping around in darkened cars with long lens cameras still gets to some of us.

I can't imagine the impact that this sort of rotten operation has on those people who are dipping a toe into social activism for the first time.

In the report, Hughes said his biggest concern was that Thompson & Clark treated what they called 'Issue Motivated Groups' – democratic groups such as earthquake victims – as a security threat, and that this went unchallenged by government officials.

What this means is that for years, the New Zealand Government agenda has been led by a controversial and discredited spy agency.

In the case of Greenpeace, the SSC investigation concluded that MBIE's conduct with TCIL breached the State Services Code of Conduct by failing to maintain objectivity.

It showed that TCIL worked with MBIE on a covert project called Operation Exploration, a project that continues today, and a project that we still know almost nothing about.

This report will have an impact on every single person who has fallen victim to such this affront to democracy over the past decade in New Zealand.

We now need to ask ourselves two things: How did we allow this to happen, and how do we ensure it never happens again?