Prime Minister John Key has rejected accusations of scaremongering about "jihadi brides" after it was revealed that New Zealand women being monitored by spy agencies had not actually left from New Zealand and were living in Australia.
The Security Intelligence Service (SIS) director Rebecca Kitteridge told a select committee in December that an increasing number of New Zealand women were heading to Iraq and Syria. She said at the time that she did not know whether the women were travelling to the Middle East as "jihadi brides" to fight themselves or to support Isis fighters.
"What has changed over the last year is that the issue of New Zealand women travelling to Iraq and Syria wasn't something we have seen previously or been aware of previously," she said.
Documents released to Radio New Zealand showed that none of the women left for the Middle East from New Zealand and all of them were living in Australia.
Speaking to reporters in Christchurch today, Mr Key distanced himself from the comments, saying that they were made by the spy chief.