Quiet funding rise for secret agencies

By KEVIN TAYLOR and NZPA

The Government's two spy agencies have each been given a 28 per cent funding boost in the Budget but details remain sketchy.

The increases for the Security Intelligence Service and Government Communications Security Bureau were not trumpeted during last Thursday's Budget.

The SIS allocation is set to increase from $17.2 million in 2003-2004 to $22 million in 2004-2005, and the GCSB's budget will rise from $29.9 million to $38.2 million.

A spokesman for Prime Minister Helen Clark, the minister in charge of the SIS and GCSB, said that since the September 2001 terrorist attacks in America the budgets of the agencies had increased for "obvious reasons" and she considered it was money well spent.

He said the main reason for the GCSB increase was capital investment in the two intelligence collection stations the agency runs at Tangimoana and Waihopai.

"This is needed to ensure that both facilities remain up to date with developments in the international telecommunications infrastructure," the spokesman said.

The GCSB is said to eavesdrop on foreign communications and shares data with the US, Canada, Australia and Britain as part of the five-nation Echelon snooping network.

The spokesman did not elaborate on what the new SIS money was for.

In last year's annual report to Parliament, SIS director Richard Woods noted the budget had increased 22 per cent over 2001-2002, mostly to boost staff numbers from 111 to 140.

The GCSB said in its first-ever annual report to Parliament in January that the agency had made "significant progress" during the 2002-2003 year in acquiring the "capabilities and resources" it needed.

The bureau's staff numbers were boosted by 11 per cent, to 280, on the previous year.

Green Party MP Keith Locke said the Government's spending priorities were wrong. It should be increasing the foreign aid budget, which was "miserly".

"If we want to be secure from terrorism we should first help reduce the gap between rich and poor countries," he said.

"Extra spending on spooks might get brownie points in Washington, but New Zealand's contribution should be to help eliminate the poverty that breeds terrorists."

Mr Locke said that although the intelligence agencies should operate under some confidentiality, he questioned why so little about their spending was ever revealed.

"All Government departments should operate on the basis of as much transparency as possible, rather than the other way around."

"Sure, the intelligence agencies can't be as transparent as other departments, but it doesn't need to use the fact that it's secret to have no transparency whatsoever."

Meanwhile, the Government has added more organisations and one individual to its list of terrorist entities.

Prime Minister Helen Clark said the action had been taken under the Terrorism Suppression Act in line with decisions by the United Nations.

The individual is Safet Durguti.

The organisations are the al-Haramain Foundation (Indonesia), al-Haramayn Foundation (Kenya), al-Haramain Foundation (Pakistan) and al-Haramayn Foundation (Tanzania).

One previously listed organisation has been amended. The al-Haramain Islamic Foundation (Bosnia-Hercegovina) is now known as Vazir.


SPY BOOST

* The Security Intelligence Service budget rises from $17.2 million in 2003-04 to $22 million in 2004-05.

* The Government Communications Security Bureau budget rises from $29.9 million to $38.2 million.