New Zealand’s intelligence bosses have warned of “increasingly aggressive activity” in the country by people they believe are spies for foreign states.
The annual report by the Security Intelligence Service (SIS), published this week, said unnamed states are making “enduring and persistent” efforts to collect intelligence against New Zealand’s government, target those with access to sensitive information, and interfere in all spheres of the country’s public life. Agents from one foreign government have cultivated “a range of relationships of significant concern”, the report said.
It did not name the countries accused, but analysts said New Zealand’s strategic importance in the Pacific, as well as growing global awareness of its politics, had attracted the ire of authoritarian leaders such as China’s Xi Jinping and Russia’s Vladimir Putin.
“Countries aggressively interfere in a liberal democracy because they’re extremely insecure, very fragile authoritarian regimes,” said Robert Patman, a professor at the University of Otago who specialises in international relations. The former prime minister Jacinda Ardern – a charismatic figure who was popular abroad – represented a particular threat, he added.
“New Zealand’s international profile has grown appreciably in the last few years,” Patman said. “We’ve moved from being a self-described small state to being in the eyes of others a minor power.”
The country’s burgeoning influence has increased its strategic importance in the Pacific, he added. New Zealand has long been seen as a moderate voice in the contest for Pacific influence between China – its largest trading partner – and the US and Australia, its partners in the Five Eyes intelligence-sharing group of nations.
In the report, “geopolitical competition, including in the Pacific, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine” is cited as the force reshaping “global security dynamics”.
The SIS credited increased information-sharing with both domestic and foreign government agencies as the reason it had identified “previously unknown individuals of security concern” in the past year. In the case of the group of alleged agents from a single country – subjects of a long-running investigation, the SIS said – information was collected that helped “inform a specific decision that involved those individuals and their associates.”
The report did not give more details.
The account was a rare instance of public warning from New Zealand’s spy agency, which has not traditionally shared such assessments of specific national security threats but pledged late last year to begin doing so. At a parliamentary select committee in March, Phil McKee – the acting director-general of the SIS – said foreign espionage was a growing concern and a matter “where we feel there is a need to raise more awareness” among the public.
There have been few publicly documented cases of foreign interference in New Zealand. In March, a senior public servant took the unusual step of telling reporters he had lost his job after being accused of spying for China. The SIS did not comment on the claim.
Before New Zealand’s 2017 election, a lawmaker’s undeclared past connections to the Chinese Communist party raised questions about Beijing’s influence in Wellington and candidate vetting for political parties.
Spy bosses told the select committee last month that they did not have specific security concerns about October’s scheduled election. An independent review of New Zealand’s electoral system – including the management of foreign interference risks – is due to report its findings in June.
