MBIE's intelligence wing, MI, has expanded to take charge of intelligence and operations if there is a national security threat (file picture). Photo: 123RF
The government's super-ministry has quietly embedded itself in the country's spy agency network, more than tripling the size and spending of its own powered-up intelligence-gathering arm.
Newly released Official Information Act documents show the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment's (MBIE) intelligence wing, MI, has expanded in the past 12 months beyond immigration to cover the entire sprawling ministry, taking charge of intelligence and operations if there is a national security threat.
Its budget has doubled in one year to $11 million - almost quadruple what it was in 2017 - and its staff has grown to 115.
Its focus is on "national security and intelligence" through a "National Security Intelligence Team", even though the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS), Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) and National Assessment Bureau already do this. Unlike MI, those spy agencies all have outside scrutiny from an independent watchdog; MI has none, only an internal monitoring group.
The Muslim community said it was "horrified" at what it called secret "empire building".
MI's expansion occurred under so-called Project Kākariki from June 2022, the OIA shows.
This was led by a former government terrorism assessment centre manager and police National Intelligence Centre deputy director Travis Benson. He was recruited in August 2022 on a salary of up to $220,000, with many other MI jobs added since.
"MBIE Intelligence has established a specific intelligence capability which focuses on national security and intelligence," said a document in February posted online by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
"This capability supports a wide range of MBIE's activities in the National Security System but is concentrated on immigration issues, including Mass Arrivals, as well as conducting a range of information collection, research, and analysis."
MI deploys tools to scour social media under a secret deal with controversial Israeli surveillance-for-hire firm, Cobwebs Technologies. The ministry sought a year ago to withhold all information about Cobwebs from RNZ, until the Ombudsman intervened.
The documents then released showed - among the many redactions - that MI had sought and got the ability through Cobwebs to reach into people's private Whatsapp channels, as well as search the likes of Facebook and Twitter.
The ministry and government defended the use of the foreign company as a controlled, proportionate targeting that was beneficial to national security.
RNZ then lodged more OIAs about Cobwebs, and the intelligence unit. Lawyers familiar with MBIE told RNZ they had never heard of the unit until then.
Those queries have only now revealed the massive expansion of MI.
Its expanded job covers "increased intelligence coordination demand" both from within MBIE and externally from the SIS and GCSB.
It is now also on point for the ministry with overseas intelligence and border agencies, the 63-page OIA released on Tuesday shows.
The unit's overall brief is to sharpen up all of MBIE's seven ranks of regulatory powers, from immigration to building to outer space - when up until a year ago it was 95 percent funded by and focused on Immigration.
However, outside its central Wellington headquarters, the ministry has struggled on the frontline, for instance, to investigate labour and foreign student exploitation, and it was recently rated one out of five for usefulness in responding to a cyber attack, the worst among eight agencies.
Cyber attack ratings - Cabinet advisory committee March 2023. Photo: Supplied
MI's lead strategy document shows one of the unit's core aims is to be a "match fit" for any so-called immigration crisis; what this might be is blanked out in the 63-page OIA.
Most of the minutes of an internal oversight group looking at MI are also blanked out.
A briefing to an incoming MBIE minister in 2022 mentions the intelligence function just once, and only about it providing research and evidence.
Federation of Islamic Assoc 'shocked' they were not told of MI's existence
The Federation of Islamic Association spokesperson Abdur Razzaq Khan said it had only learned of this now, from the media.
In more than 30 consultations with national security agencies and the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet since the 2019 mosque attacks, MBIE was never in the room and never told them about MI, he said.
"I'm not surprised, I'm shocked," Razzaq said on Tuesday.
It was the opposite of the transparency with the community that the Royal Commission had recommended, and that the government vowed to advance.
"They're actually looking at communities like us, people who are coming in ... immigrants and others, with no consultation, no accountability, by any agency apart from themselves."
It was not clear what reports were done by MI, what reviews were done of the unit, and no one who was a target could appeal what they did not know was happening, made worse by the use of a firm founded by ex-Israeli Defence Force commanders, vetting the social media of migrants who might be from the Middle East, Razzaq said.
"This does not engender trust and confidence.
"Whatever the new government comes in, really has to look at, 'Are we creating a small empire of National Intelligence?' because that's what they're talking about here."
The ministry's section that spawned MI, Immigration NZ, has a patchy track record of succeeding with some hits but other misses, such as in combating international student fraudsters, and labour scammers.
Recently, RNZ reported;INZ's labour exploitation investigations have fallen from 700 to 200 a year since 2018.
The SIS last year told RNZ it checked the details of tens of thousands of people each year before they entered the country and advised MBIE of potential risks.
"So why does MBIE need to do this?" asked Razzaq.
"And it's not just a small branch; they've got a whole intelligence unit."
MBIE response
MBIE said MI was focused only on risks it had a legislated responsibility to deal with.
"MBIE is not considered an intelligence and security agency for the purposes of the Intelligence and Security Act 2017 and its intelligence unit is therefore not subject to oversight by the Inspector-General of Intelligence and Security," the deputy secretary of digital, data and insights, Greg Patchell, told RNZ in a statement.
MI's expansion was a result of an internal restructure, he said. "There was no increase to intelligence resourcing."
OIA documents talk about new dedicated teams and functions.
Among MI's recent work was providing analysis to decision-makers during Cyclone Gabrielle, Patchell said.
MI was also focused on preventing mass arrivals and human trafficking.
RNZ twice asked MI to summarise its role in the cases of mass migrant labour exploitation of Chinese, Indian and Bangladeshi workers in Auckland recently, exposed by the media, not by MBIE, but it refused. RNZ requested an interview but the ministry offered a background briefing only, which was declined.
The ministry's response disclosed for the first time what it said it used the Cobwebs' tools for.
Even after it came to light last year, the ministry refused for security reasons to specify what risks it was targeting.
On Tuesday night, it said "in the interests of public trust and confidence, we believe it is important to be clear that MBIE's use of the Cobwebs tools is to support the prevention and/or detection of a mass arrival".
"It was acquired exclusively for use in identifying potential mass arrival activity offshore. It is only used for this purpose and for nothing else."
A mass arrival has never occurred in New Zealand.
The MI unit's use of Cobwebs was "strictly limited" and okayed by internal audit, with two more internal reports on how it was used being done this month, the ministry added.