The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security announced their 2023/2024 annual work programme today, and its interesting reading. There's a bunch of spy stuff, including reviews of "Execution of class warrants", "Acquisition and use of bulk personal datasets (NZSIS)", and "A specific form of online intelligence gathering operation (NZSIS)", which will be interesting to see how the spies are violating our privacy and human rights. There's also a review into "New Zealanders and International Terrorist Screening Center Databases (NZSIS)", which covers "no fly" lists. And then there's this:
Assessment of security risk in meeting transparency requirements (GCSB and NZSIS): A review would examine the agencies’ approaches to the assessment of security risk from official publication or disclosure of information on their activities, including in response to requests under the Official Information Act 1982 and the Privacy Act 2020.Or, to put it another way: are the spies being too paranoid? Obviously, I'm primarily interested in whether they are applying sections 6(a) and 6(b) of the OIA correctly, but the broader issue of public reports - including IGIS reports? - is also important. And with the SIS recently refusing to release basic performance statistics on their processing of immigration security checks, it seems particularly appropriate.
Of course, if they're reviewing it this year, we won't see a report until 2024 or 2025, which of course will not be allowed to include classified material. Which invites the question: if IGIS finds the spies have been too paranoid in censoring information, will they censor it to protect their reputations?
