Former prime minister Helen Clark greets China President Xi Jinping before a parade to mark 80 years since the end of World War II. Photo: Screenshot / CGTN
Former prime minister Helen Clark has criticised the Security Intelligence Service for becoming more politicised.
Clark, along with fellow former prime minister Sir John Key have been in Beijing attending the military parade in China in commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Japan's surrender at the end of World War II.
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The 90-minute event included a procession of military vehicles, heavy weapons, and thousands of military servicemen and women, as well as a fly-past of warplanes and helicopters.
Chinese President Xi Jinping hosted the event, standing beside Russia's Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
Helen Clark Photo: RNZ / Diego Opatowski
Clark told Morning Report it was a line call to attend the parade but it was normal for China to invite its neighbours to such an event.
Asked about a recent SIS report which raised China as a concern, particularly in the Pacific and its relationship with the United States, Clark said she worried there was "more politicisation" of the spy agency.
"I was its minister for nine years. I've never known it to release reports like that in my time. I worry that we're getting more politicisation of the SIS. By their nature security services should stay in the background and advise," Clark said.
It was unclear whether there was increasing risk from China, or the SIS was being more open about it, she said.
"[China] happens to be our major trade partner. It is an emerging power. Do we want to engage with it? Or do we want to say 'no, no, no, we can't go there' because somebody else might be at a meeting? It all gets a bit silly.
"If we were only ever to talk to those countries which shared exactly the same political systems and values as we did it would be a pretty small conversation," Clark said.
In response a NZSIS spokesperson said the agency had an important role to play in raising public awareness about national security threats and providing protective security advice.
"This public role has increased in recent years and is always done in a politically neutral way, as required by legislation."
They said that the Royal Commission into the Christchurch attacks recommended that the agency provide more information publicly about the threats the country faced.
"The recently released Security Threat Environment report covered foreign interference, espionage and violent extremist threats facing New Zealand. "
They said the report is not Government policy and was prepared independently from Ministers and international partners.
Big gaps in SIS threat report?
An organisation that represents Muslims says the country's security network to combat extremism is far too fragmented.
The Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) also identified what it saw as big gaps in the SIS's recent threat assessment report.
"The report has revealed significant inconsistencies between the information presented by the NZSIS and other agencies which are also focused on violent extremism," spokesperson Abdur Razzaq said in a statement.
The new report ignored the threat from disinformation even though that featured in the last two such annual reports, and 80 percent of surveyed NZers were worried about it, he said.
"There also seems to be no focus on emerging homegrown radicalisation and violent extremism."
Abdur Razzaq. Photo: RNZ/Jessie Curran
The SIS began putting out the threat report three years ago; its focus had been mostly on foreign interference, espionage and online radicalisation.
FIANZ said the situation was worryingly similar to the siloed approach in the run-up to the 15 March 2019 mosque attacks.
Core recommendations from the royal commission of inquiry included setting up a single overarching national security oversight agency. But the goverment dumped that recommendation last year, after the previous Labour-led executive had dilly-dallied over it.
"There are now eight agencies which have varying degrees of focus on online violent extremism but there is no cohesive focus for national policy and planning," Razzaq said.
"This makes our evidence-based policy planning as weak as we were prior to March 15."
The Counter-Terrorism Coordination Committee was just a subcommittee of the Security and Intelligence Board "and neither of them produce any consolidated national threat assessment".
A research centre into extremism and terrorism, that was another recommendation of the royal commission, never really got going as the government gave it little funding.
SIS defends report
The SIS said it stood by its threat assessment report, saying it was based on actual cases seen in New Zealand, classified intelligence, active investigations into individuals of concern, lead information from the public and from other organisations and open-source information.
"While the threat environment report does not use the term 'homegrown violent extremism' it is very clear that the most likely terrorist threat in New Zealand will come from someone in New Zealand who has been radicalised online," it said in a statement to RNZ.
As for disinformation, a key assessment was that increased polarisation and grievance-based narratives online could drive people toward violent extremist ideologies.
It said it valued the constructive relationship it had developed with FIANZ over the years.
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