He said the security threat was low but claimed there had been attempts to use New Zealand technology to build weapons of mass destruction.
"There have been cyber intrusions in New Zealand and we believe that the basis of those intrusions has been to retrieve information that could be used in the creation of weapons of mass destruction."
Individuals here were funding, or had links to, overseas terror groups, he said.
Yes, really: he expects us to believe we're under a serious terrorist threat.
This is simply laughable. But even if it were true, it does not require an expansion of the GCSB's powers. Actual attempts to acquire WMDs carry severe criminal penalties under the New Zealand Nuclear Free Zone, Disarmament, and Arms Control Act 1987 and the Chemical Weapons (Prohibition) Act 1996, and can be prosecuted by police (who have access to wiretaps for that purpose under the Search and Surveillance Act 2011). And people with actual links to overseas terrorist groups - that is, acting as their agents, rather than just having some Facebook friends in common - are "foreign persons" under the GCSB Act, and the prohibition on domestic interceptions does not apply.
Basically this is a try-on. The spies have been caught out abusing their powers, and rather than admitting their guilt, they're trying to scare us into submission with phantom "terrorists" so they can go back to spying on environmentalists, human rights campaigners, Maori activists and other such "threats to security". We shouldn't let them get away with it. As for John Key, this Tony Blair act shows us that he has contempt for us and thinks we're stupid. we shouldn't let him get away with that either.