Quiet shift raises concerns about security agency promise

Wednesday, 10 July 2024

Speedy has been a journalist in Christchurch for over 20 years.

A quiet change to how national security is managed has raised concerns a promised national security and intelligence agency won’t be delivered.

The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) made internal changes to the management of national security in December, appointing Bridget White as executive director of national security. White is a former director of strategy at the Government Communications Security Bureau, and former deputy Public Service Commissioner.

The internal restructuring on the Beehive’s eighth floor comes as the Government remains, in principle, committed to creating a new national security agency recommended by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Christchurch mosque terror attacks, which published its findings in 2020.

But with a review of the Government’s response to the commission’s recommendations under way, it’s possible the new agency might not be delivered on.

“We get worried when there’s an internal restructuring and it involved national security and there’s no visibility,” said Abdur Razzaq, a spokesperson for the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand (Fianz).

Abdur Razzaq of the Federation of Islamic Associations New Zealand, which has been advocating for changes since the Christchurch mosque terror attack.

DPMC has restructured the National Security Group within itself, separating out “risk, governance, and crisis management” work. White now leads the refreshed group which, according to a department spokesperson, focuses on national security policy, assessments and “core issue co-ordination”, including that determined by the country’s first national security strategy.

The department did not answer a question about how the changes compared with the royal commission recommendations.

The second recommendation made by the commission was for a national intelligence and security agency be created to co-ordinate work on security issues, provide policy advice and intelligence assessments. This was because leadership of national security was “fragmented” and “only loosely co-ordinated”.

Asked whether the Government remained committed to this, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said an announcement would be made “in due course”.

Razzaq, who leads the Fianz response to the royal commission, had written to DPMC about the organisational changes and was told it was internal.

“We do recognise the pivotal role that DPMC plays in national co-ordination of national security, but we have no idea if that’s taking place with the new structure,” he said

“We're starting to see the silos, again, taking place of the different agencies.”

DPMC is an agency that works directly for the prime minister, and is located within the Beehive.

Razzaq was worried about there being no funding for a new national security agency in the 2024 Budget. He said this suggested the Government had not prioritised national security or deprioritised a new agency in favour of the internal restructuring.

He said an overarching national security agency was needed to provide for greater community input and accountability, as well as perform a monitoring role of national security efforts.

'We hope that the National Security Agency is still in the forefront of the agenda of the Government, and we were assured that the NSG [national security group] restructuring was an internal staff restructuring.

“If they’ve gone beyond that, then we would be really concerned, because this Government has talked about sunlight and transparency.

“We have not seen any sunlight on this new structure.”

Waikato University international law Professor Alexander Gillespie said the royal commission had seen “a gap” in how national security was handled, and while he was “all for” the idea of a new agency “the devil will be in the detail”.

“I know folks in some of these agencies, and I know that their approach has changed dramatically since what happened in Christchurch,” he said.

He said, while not second-guessing the commission’s conclusion, it would have been easier to work with the existing national security machinery — such as DPMC and the intelligence agencies — which is doing a better job now.

'You've just got to be careful when you do these things because like you start out with the best of intentions … and we then create an agency which has got all of these powers and it's not tethered, it has the risk of abuse or not achieving its objectives.“

Labour Party intelligence agencies spokesperson Priyanca Radhakrishnan said establishing a new agency was “vital work that must be carefully considered”.

Labour would support the Government in setting up a new national security agency, she said.