|
 Skip
to this weeks poll |
Send to friend
13
July 2008
National
Security
|
Printer
friendly version (PDF) 
View
>>> |
Last
week, in a report examining the quality of government spending
in New Zealand, the ANZ Bank’s Chief Economist Cameron
Bagrie explained that the Government has built a
“Rolls-Royce” public sector, when a “Toyota” would do.
The report estimated that back-office departmental spending
had grown 40 percent faster than operational spending on
front-line services.1
With
the core public sector workforce having grown from 29,000 in
1999 to 44,500 today, bloated agencies are a reality. As a
small country we are now so grossly over-governed that
political masters are having to spend more and more of their
time defending the ill-advised decisions of bureaucrats.
Take
the recent case of the decision to produce 70,000 badges
sporting messages such as “Wassup!”, “Nice!” and “I
love Maori success” that were meant to be used to enhance
Maori educational achievement. The $286,000 project, which was
criticised by almost everyone except the Ministry of Education
who thought it up, was widely considered to be a gross waste
of taxpayers’ money.2
Just
last week the government’s “food police” - spawned
through the excessive funding of more than $200 million of
taxpayers’ money into the war on obesity - claimed success
in its attack on Bluebird Foods. The crime committed by
Bluebirds Foods was to run a promotion with collectable All
Blacks cards in their chippies. The food police in the
Ministry of Health complained because they had estimated that
a child might have to consume more than a kilogram of fat in
order to collect all the cards. To the astonishment of the
public - who know that children collect cards by swapping as
well as by asking everyone else to help consume the product
– the complaint was upheld by the Advertising Standards
Authority.3
Then
there was the revelation that an astonishing $11 million of
the taxpayers’ money that is being directed into Sport and
Recreation New Zealand (SPARC) to get children active, is
going to be used on developing a website!4
But central government doesn’t have a monopoly on growing a
bureaucracy, nor on the stupid decisions that emerge - local
government bureaucrats, often driven by ideological belief and
power, regularly dream up new regulations that are regarded as
completely unnecessary by the general public. The problem is,
however, that the voice of reason is all too often lost in the
decision-making process, with councils passing laws to ban
roadside selling, backyard burning, unrestricted tree pruning
and a plethora of other inane restrictions on individual
freedom. All too often the end result is the spectacle of
councilors ducking and diving as they try to defend
regulations that were introduced to solve a problem that did
not exist.
However,
in the midst of a seemingly endless stream of questionable
government spending decisions, two items stand out as being
particularly ill-advised, given that they are based on
criminally obtained information. They are the $38,000 of
taxpayers’ money allocated by Creative New Zealand to fund
the play “The Hollow Men”, and the $25,000 grant given by
the Screen Innovation Production Fund for the film “Hollow
Men”. Both of these productions are based on the book
written by Nicky Hager, which in turn is based on the receipt
of 475 emails that according to the Police, were stolen from
the then leader of the National Party, Don Brash, between 2003
and 2005.
In
a speech to Parliament in 2006, ACT Leader Rodney Hide
describes the situation in this way: “What
we have seen with the emails and correspondence that appear in
Mr Nicky Hager’s book is a degree of political espionage
that we have never seen in New Zealand before. I do not think
we have seen it in any Western country before. It is not
possible for those emails to have been leaked, and it is not
possible for those emails to have been a series of leaks. When
I read the book it is clear to me that there has been covert
surveillance of members of Parliament of this House, offices
broken into, and computers hacked into from outside. The
Leader of the Opposition’s computer has been hacked or
broken into. Staff members in this Parliament have had their
computers hacked, and so have other MPs. The computers of
private citizens have been accessed”.
He went on to state: “Nicky Hager has admitted to taking
emails criminally obtained through espionage and selectively
leaking them to the media in order to effect an outcome in an
election. That material has been obtained in that criminal
way, that covert and systematic way, not once or twice, not
just for days or even weeks or months, but for years. Nicky
Hager does not reveal his sources. He does not tell us who
these shadowy figures are. He does not tell us who is behind
the book and the material he has. He does not tell us—the
people of New Zealand and the people in this House—what
their motives were. Oh no! It is enough that Nicky Hager has
this material”.5
On
April 16th Detective Inspector Harry Quinn
announced that the Police had closed the stolen email case. He
stated that the police were “unsuccessful
in identifying those responsible for the thefts”
and… “that police had been unable to establish with
certainty how the e-mails had actually been stolen”.
He concluded that “The
file is closed until someone comes forward with some
compelling evidence”.6
This
case raises a number of questions. Given the Police statement
that “Mr Hager when interviewed by
the investigation declined to identify to police the source of
the e-mails he used in his book”, why wasn’t Nicky Hagar
charged with receiving stolen documents? After all, he has
clearly profited from the use of those stolen documents
through the publication of his book. It also raises questions
about the propriety of government agencies gifting $63,000 for
the production of highly political performances based on
stolen documents.
The
police investigation itself has also been the subject of
serious concerns. According to Fran O’Sullivan in
yesterday’s Herald, when Don Brash “was
briefed by police about the progress of their investigation
into the stolen emails in July 2007 (some nine to 10 months
after he lodged a formal complaint about the theft) he was
told that they had not at that stage interviewed Hager, or
Winston Peters or any of the people that were known to either
have or have seen the emails”.
She
explains how Don Brash was "extremely irritated” by the
police's desultory performance. “The
detective inspector leading the investigation was the very
same Harry Quinn - now retired - whose credibility was blown
when he decided not to throw the book at the PM's chief of
staff Heather Simpson - after a previous investigation into
claims that Labour had breached spending caps at the 2005
election found a prima facie breach of the Electoral Act on
Simpson's part”.7
The
Police’s failure to resolve this case leaves Rodney Hide’s
concerns, that the stealing of emails
and correspondence represents a degree of political espionage
that we have never seen in New Zealand before, unanswered:
“I believe that every political party in this
Parliament—indeed, every New Zealander—has to believe that
the systems we operate in this Parliament are secure. If Don
Brash’s computer can be penetrated, then the computers of
Michael Cullen, the Prime Minister, and any other Minister can
be penetrated”.
It also raises the issue of whether those agencies that are
charged with the responsibility of protecting the security of
New Zealand’s official communications and information
technology systems have become involved in the investigation,
since Parliament is supreme and yet it is Parliament’s email
system that has been breached.
The
New Zealand Government operates a sophisticated security and
intelligence network, with four key operational units: the New
Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) provides
intelligence and advice on security issues including
espionage, sabotage, subversion and terrorism. The Government
Communications Security Bureau (GCSB), which runs the
satellite communications interception station at Waihope near
Blenheim and the radio communications interception station at
Tangimoana near Bulls, provides foreign intelligence to the
government as well as advice on the internal security of the
government’s own communications and information-processing
systems. The External Assessments Bureau (EAB) is part of the
Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and provides
assessments on overseas events and developments, and the
Directorate of Defence Intelligence and Security (DDIS)
provides security and intelligence on defence matters.8
This
week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator is Warren Reed, a former
intelligence officer with the Australian Secret Intelligence
Service who trained with MI6 in London. In his article “The
Unseen World of Industrial Espionage”, Warren explains:
“The
break-in at the end of April by three protestors at the
Waihope Satellite Station and the damage done there naturally
preoccupies the minds of many New Zealanders, especially those
concerned about the reach of electronic surveillance. After
all, with the variety of purposes that the Station serves
within the US-UK-Canada-Australia-NZ alliance, such break-ins
are unlikely to force the facility’s closure.
“In
a different way, the theft of Don Brash’s emails falls into
the same category. In a democratic system, it is unacceptable
for the authorities to fail to get to the bottom of such a
situation. In the political and parliamentary process, it is
vital that dishonesty and wrongdoing are rooted out. If we
don’t take such matters seriously, it’s unlikely we’ll
have the disposition necessary to protect ourselves in other
areas where the threat is far more insidious. In effect, while
we’re distracted by what’s going on in the front garden, a
delivery truck’s being loaded with the family silver and
other valuables round the back of the house.
“Industrial espionage is a classical example of a less
visible threat. It has a very long heritage, it’s rampant
and on a global scale – and New Zealand is in no way
immune”. To read Warren’s article click
>>>
Without
a doubt, protecting New Zealanders from domestic and
international threats is a core role of government and with
increasing globalization – including our new free trade
agreements - we undoubtedly need to be
more vigilant than ever before.
With
that in mind, surely the government needs
to attend to the domestic matter of ensuring that the
Parliamentary email system is secure as a priority. Any New
Zealander
who emails MPs to share their concerns and opinions needs to
know that their emails are private. That’s why it would be
in the national interest for the stolen email case to be
re-opened in order to find out who was responsible for such a
blatant breach of Parliamentary security, and to prosecute all
of those involved.
This
week’s poll
asks: Do you think any
government funding should have been used in the production of
the “Hollow Men” play or film?
Go
to Poll >>>
If you
would like to comment on this issue please click
>>>
FOOTNOTES
1.
Cameron Bagrie, Defending
the Front-line
2.
Herald, Maori
badges childish, say heads
3.
John Roughan, Fat
Chance of balanced View on Obesity Issues
4.
Bernard Hickey, The
money pit that is the Mission-On website
5.
Rodney Hide, Second Reading Unsolicited Electronic Messages Bill
6.
Police media release, http://www.police.govt.nz/news/release/3859.html
7.
Fran O’Sullivan, Earth
calling Hagar – get a grip please
8.
Department Prime Minister and Cabinet, Securing
our Nation’s Safety
Skip to top Skip
to this weeks poll
Send to friend
Your
Comments:
Reader's
comments will be posted on the NZCPR Forum page click
to view >>>.
Skip to top Skip
to this weeks poll
Send
to a friend:
|
