$3.5m safety upgrade for NZ posts

By MATHEW DEARNALEY

New Zealand diplomats within potential striking range of terrorists will receive a $3.5 million safety upgrade from this week's Budget, as the lion's share of a $5.9 million security package.

Foreign Affairs Minister Phil Goff said last night that the money would be used for a comprehensive security assessment of the Government's 57 overseas posts, and to improve the safety of their 500 or so staff. These include about 200 New Zealanders and 300 locally hired workers.

Mr Goff said the money would not be spread evenly, but would be directed mainly to areas where a preliminary assessment indicated relatively high terrorist threats, particularly in Asia-Pacific.

This followed the Bali nightclub bombings in October and concern that NZ posts may not escape the attention of terrorists targeting the embassies and homes of Western diplomats in general.

"It is not that New Zealand per se is a particular target, but terrorist groups may not be discriminating as to whether it is the US, Britain, Australia, New Zealand or whatever," Mr Goff said.

"There is that level of risk and we owe it to the people who work there and to people who utilise the posts, whether or not they are New Zealanders abroad. What we are saying is that levels of security deemed to have been adequate in the past are, in an age of international terrorism, in some countries deemed to be insufficient to meet a higher-level threat."

He also announced a $2 million one-off allocation to establish a new Pacific security fund, to help agencies in island states such as Fiji to combat terrorism and crimes such as money-laundering and the smuggling of people, arms or drugs. The idea was to reduce the impact on New Zealand.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade will also receive money within a $5.9 million overall boost to the security budget this year for on-line registration of New Zealanders overseas.

Establishing the whereabouts of friends or relatives of people phoning with information during emergencies such as New York and Bali was a huge challenge, so being able to put details into a database would help officials greatly.