The Green Party is calling for the Opposition to be involved in the selection of the next director for the Government Communications Security Bureau following the resignation of Ian Fletcher. It is not a bad idea.
It is no reflection on the performance of Mr Fletcher, who has resigned for a "family reason" that the Prime Minister assured us yesterday is genuine. Mr Key would know; his acquaintance with the departing director goes back to their schooldays and he had perhaps too much influence in Mr Fletcher's appointment after the agency overstepped its powers under a previous director.
Mr Key also denied that a merger of the GCSB and the Security Intelligence Service is imminent, and that Mr Fletcher's departure has anything to do with the review of the intelligence agencies due this year. So a new director will be appointed and the person chosen by the State Services Commission ought to be subject to bipartisan approval.
That does not mean every party need be given a potential veto. An endorsement by the largest Opposition party would seem sufficient to satisfy most people that the appointment was apolitical. Since the SIS has long given regular briefings to the Leader of the Opposition as well as the Prime Minister, the appointee needs to have the confidence of both.
The agencies have had a torrid time politically in the past few years, the GCSB for illegal surveillance of residents, the SIS for releasing a note of its briefing of an Opposition leader. Both agencies need to restore political confidence in their culture and operations at a time international security threats are running high. Jihadism spread by new technology needs to be met by new techniques of surveillance that are already politically contentious.
