Andrew Little says work on the agency is a priority. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Setting up an over-arching intelligence and security agency is a priority and is "not far away", the government says.
The Royal Commission into the mosque attacks four years ago made the establishment of an overarching agency one of its top recommendations.
The lead minister for responding to the recommendations, Andrew Little, said at yesterday's launch that work on setting up a national intelligence and security agency, or NISA, was continuing as a "priority task".
Its establishment "is not too far away", he said.
Muslim and Jewish community groups have previously expressed frustration at how long it had taken, scepticism at other structural changes that were already taking place when they believed the NISA should have directed these, and doubt that the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) would actually relinquish its premier role in national security.
Asked today if DPMC would take a lesser role, Little said only that the department was still a necessary key part of the national security framework.
NISA would be over and above the SIS and GCSB, not replacing them, but taking a higher-level view of the 'threat horizon'.
The Federation of Islamic Associations (FIANZ) today said setting it up would make the country safer.
FIANZ spokesperson Abdur Razzaq said the new national security strategy laid a strong foundation for the agency.
"We are so pleased that the strategy has been developed, and it's been developed in consultation - now is the second phase.
"That was the whole point of the establishment of the number two priority of the Royal Commission, of the national intelligence security agency."
They were keen to see the agency as part of the machinery of government but maintaining independence, too, as the Royal Commission had recommended, Razzaq said.
He has made repeated reports developed on behalf of the Muslim community to Little - "eight" that he was working through, Little joked at the launch - about improving the security system to prevent a repeat of terrorist violence.
The DPMC had a necessary coordinating role, and there appeared to be cross-party support for the new agency from National, Razzaq added.
The 23-page document outlining the new national security strategy for the first time yesterday, does not actually mention setting up NISA. This is despite it listing a series of other major and additional initiatives from now till 2025, including setting up agencies to coordinate the 12 core issues.
In the list, it said: "Over the next two years, government will deliver a programme of national security reform, in line with the Royal Commission's emphasis on collective accountabilities and national security community leadership.
"These reforms will ensure we have the right structures and arrangements in place to deliver a more strategic approach."
Little said it was the first time the country had had a strategy, and the first time the public was being given such visibility of what was going on.
The 12 core issues that "most directly impact our national security interests" were listed as:
- Strategic competition and the rules-based international system
- Emerging, critical, and sensitive technologies
- Disinformation
- Foreign interference and espionage
- Terrorism and violent extremism
- Transnational organised crime
- Economic security
- Pacific resilience and security
- Maritime security
- Border security
- Cyber security
- Space security
The national security community already had policies and strategies in place for many of these, but the overarching national strategy would help keep those updated, the document.