Spying Blind

The SIS’s latest threat assessment reads more like a public relations hand-out from an agency profoundly compromised by the woke imperatives of the 2020s.

I LIKED OUR LEADING SPY AGENCY BETTER when it stayed as far away from the public spotlight as possible. Back in the days when the Director of New Zealand’s Security Intelligence Service understood that hidden in the shadows is where spooks belong.

In the Twentieth Century, “threat assessments” were for the eyes of the Prime Minister and his key advisers only. In the Twenty-First, SIS Directors are expected to share them with the public and make themselves available for interviews. In 2025, the spooks are not the least bit embarrassed to be seen asking (begging?) for our help. Presumably, that’s why they’re so willing to keep us all up to speed.

If New Zealand’s Security Threat Environment: An assessment by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service is an accurate reflection of the SIS’s priorities and operational protocols, then we are all in serious trouble. The third such document released to the public, this latest “assessment”, far from being a dispassionate appraisal of New Zealand’s political and geopolitical situation, reads more like a public relations hand-out on behalf of an agency profoundly compromised by the woke imperatives of the 2020s.