Effective and credible external oversight of the GCSB is crucial for assuring the New Zealand public that our powers are being used in accordance with the law and with respect for New Zealanders’ right to privacy.
The Governor-General, on the recommendation of the Prime Minister, appoints a Chief Commissioner of Intelligence Warrants, and can appoint up to two additional Commissioners of Intelligence Warrants. Commissioners must have previously held office as a Judge of the High Court and are appointed for a term of three years.
Commissioners apply their significant judicial experience, ensuring robust scrutiny is applied to their areas of responsibilities.
The functions of the Commissioners include considering:
- Applications jointly (with the Minister) of any warrant that targets a New Zealander (type 1 warrant applications)
- Applications for practice warrants, which enable us to carry out activities that are necessary to test, maintain and develop our capabilities or train our staff
- Applications to access restricted information, which is certain defined categories of information that are subject to strict statutory restrictions. An example is information subject to the secrecy obligations under tax law
- Applications for business records approvals, which in turn enable our Director-General to issue business records directions to obtain business records from telecommunications providers and financial service providers. Business records do not include the content of communications or web browsing history.
The current Commissioners of Intelligence Warrants are:
Chief Commissioner: Hon Robert Dobson KC
Commissioner: Hon Brendan Brown KC
Commissioner: Hon Karen Clark KC
The Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security (IGIS) is a statutory officer providing independent external oversight and review of the GCSB and New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS).
The IGIS is responsible for reviewing issues of legality and propriety and provides an independent determination of complaints about our conduct. The IGIS also reviews our compliance procedures and systems.
The Intelligence and Security Act 2017 made the IGIS role more independent of the Minister responsible for the GCSB. The IGIS can inquire into operationally sensitive matters and has access to security records held by us.
The IGIS conducts inquiries into matters, including individual complaints, report findings and recommendations to the Minister responsible for the GCSB. Those reports, excluding matters of security concern, may be found in the Reports section of the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security's website.
Visit the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security(external link) website.
In accordance with the requirements of the Protected Disclosures Act 2000, the IGIS is responsible for receiving protected disclosures by personnel of New Zealand intelligence and security agencies.
The current IGIS is Brendan Horsley.
The Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) is the Parliamentary oversight committee for the GCSB as well as the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS), and examines issues of efficacy and efficiency, budgetary matters and policy settings.
Membership of the ISC can be made up of between five and seven members. The Prime Minister is required to consult with the Leader of the Opposition before nominating members to the ISC, and requires the Prime Minister and Leader of the Opposition to have regard to the proportional representation of political parties in the House of Representatives when nominating members.
The functions of the ISC are:
- to examine the policy, administration and expenditure of each intelligence and security agency
- to consider any bill, petition or other matter in relation to an intelligence and security agency referred by the House of Representatives
- to receive and consider the annual reports of GCSB and NZSIS
- to conduct each year, following receipt of the annual report of the agencies, an annual review of the agencies
- to request the IGIS to conduct an inquiry into:
- any matter relating to an intelligence and security agency’s compliance with New Zealand law, including human rights law
- the propriety of particular activities of an intelligence and security agency
- to consider any matter (not being a matter relating directly to the activities of an intelligence and security agency) referred to the Committee by the Prime Minister because of that matter’s intelligence or security implications
- to consider and discuss with the IGIS their annual report.
We are also subject to the oversight of other independent authorities such as the Auditor-General, Privacy Commissioner, Ombudsman and the judiciary.