Foreign Espionage in New Zealand - Potential Objectives

Potential Objectives

New Zealand's relatively small population, economy, and military mean that espionage against New Zealand is unlikely to be a priority for foreign intelligence agencies. Nevertheless, the New Zealand government asserts that a limited amount of espionage does take place. Former Prime Minister Sir Geoffrey Palmer has stated that "it would be wrong to assume New Zealand was free from foreign threats that New Zealand may be too small and unimportant to be of great interest to hostile foreign-intelligence organisations".

One potential reason for foreign interest in New Zealand might be its close intelligence links with larger Western nations — as part of the UKUSA alliance, New Zealand receives more information than it might otherwise be expected to hold. Foreign intelligence agencies might therefore see New Zealand as a "back door" into the intelligence worlds of the United States or United Kingdom. At times, New Zealand's allies appear to have been concerned about this point — the United Kingdom in particular voiced concerns about possible Soviet infiltration, such as in the case of Paddy Costello (see below).

Also of potential interest was New Zealand's nuclear-free legislation, which prompted a rift between New Zealand and the United States. Soviet defector Oleg Gordievsky alleges that the Soviet Union was interested in New Zealand's policy, and attempted to promote it in Europe, perhaps in the hope of weakening the United States' position in the nuclear arms race. The Soviet Union was frequently accused of encouraging those elements in New Zealand which it saw as beneficial to its interests — the pro-Soviet Socialist Unity Party was one alleged beneficiary, as were certain militant trade unions.

On occasion, foreign spies may be active in New Zealand for reasons not connected with the country itself — the French bombing of the Rainbow Warrior was aimed at Greenpeace rather than New Zealand, and China is sometimes alleged to target New Zealand-based Chinese democracy activists and Falun Gong members more often than it targets the New Zealand government. It is also alleged that New Zealand has been used as a "training ground" for other operations — it is a developed, English-speaking country, but was seen as less dangerous than more major targets.