DIRECTOR-GENERAL OF SECURITY
PAUL O'SULLIVAN
ADDRESS TO THE
NEW ZEALAND SECURITY INTELLIGENCE SERVICE
ON THE OCCASION OF ITS 50th ANNIVERSARY

It is a pleasure to be here in Wellington to address you on the occasion of fifty years of service by the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service.

• Allow me to begin by offering you my congratulations on this milestone.

I also would like to acknowledge the close ties and common purpose that exist between our two services and to re-emphasise the importance which ASIO places on this relationship.

• Our services are aligned and our missions run parallel.

• Our history is similar and our future challenges mirrored in many ways.

Commemoration of this anniversary gives us all an opportunity to pause in a hectic period of organisational expansion and unrelenting threat, to remind ourselves of the reasons why organisations such as ours exist and to reassert our commitment to working together for the security of our respective citizens and the protection of their interests. Security threats in one form or another have afflicted nations throughout history.

• While the need for security intelligence services grew initially out of the imperatives of the Cold War, driven primarily by the threat of espionage, services such as ours remain no less relevant today.

Certainly the threat of nation state espionage remains very real, but these days it is the immediacy of the threat of terrorism that draws our focus and makes the most pressing demands on our resources.

• The threat of terrorism is unlikely to diminish any time soon - nor are the other threats we face.

• So, if we are to be effective in protecting our communities and their interests from the violence that extremists seek to exact on them, we must continue to perform our work with vigilance and dedication.

Cooperation between our closest friends has been a longstanding feature of intelligence work - as indeed it has been for other aspects of our international relations.

• More than ever in these times of elevated threat, such close and enduring partnerships are vital.
• We must also extend the reach of our relationships to encompass other countries where we have common goals and need to work together to confront similar problems.

  A lasting friendship Let me step back to a different time and a very different world - the middle of the last century. ASIO was established in 1949 - so we celebrated our 50th anniversary in 1999.  Some seven years later New Zealand established its security intelligence service. ASIO's records show that in 1954 S.T. Barnett (then controller-General of Police in Wellington) asked Sir Charles Spry (then ASIO DG) for assistance in setting up a 'New Zealand Security Service as a civilian body, independent of the Police and Armed forces'.  Spry noted in correspondence that he was quite willing to assist in any way possible.

• Spry provided Barnett with copies of the directive from the Australian Prime Minister that lead to the establishment of ASIO;  examples of staff agreements;  instructions on financial delegation from Treasury, and notes on the internal structure of the Organisation - noting that although the New Zealand and Australian Constitution and Public Service Act may differ - the basic information 'might be useful'.

ASIO may not have been there at the conception of your service but it was certainly a close playmate in the crèche!

• If I may stay with that analogy, you could say that we have been friends since childhood, thorough adulthood and now into maturity.
• That makes for a very special relationship.

In less colourful terms perhaps, this early co-operation and willingness to assist has been a defining feature of our relationship as the two services have grown in both size and sophistication.

• The regular meetings of our senior leadership groups engender a shared strategic vision.
• Our continuing readiness to exchange intelligence means we can both be better informed and more effective in fulfilling our functions.

Perhaps our greatest collective asset is the strength of the personal relationships that have been forged between the people who make up our two services.

• The real value of these personal relationships has been particularly evident in times of challenge.
• On each occasion our countries have benefited from the close cooperation between our services.

  Enduring threats - complex challenges For both our services, the volume of our business has expanded in the five years since the terrorist attacks of September 2001 that have been punctuated by terrorist attacks in Bali in 2002 and 2005, Jakarta and Madrid in 2004 and London in 2005 to name a few.

• Ordinary Australians and New Zealanders have been innocent victims in some of these attacks.

Unfortunately, there are likely to be more innocent people who will lose their lives at the hands of others who wish harm to our communities and our way of life.

• That is why we must do all that we can that is sensible and reasonable to prevent the senseless loss of life by misguided extremists.
• Close international cooperation between intelligence services is a vital element of our strategy if we are to pre-empt or respond to new developments or capabilities of the terrorists.

One of the most concerning aspects of some of the recent attacks is the emergence of 'home-grown' terrorists.

• Home-grown' terrorists represent an additional and more complex dimension to the broader threat environment in which we operate.

We have seen a number of similarities between groups and individuals that have been detected acting apparently independently of each other around the world.

• Although attacks occurred only in Britain, none of us are immune from this insidious threat.  It further underlines the importance of working closely with each other.

Detecting such groups and individuals will only get more difficult and require us to develop our investigative and analytical methodologies in ways that will enable us to detect behaviour and activity that points to preparations for an attack.

• That is why it is important that we continue to seek to protect our methods and capabilities and to develop leading edge techniques to counter advances in the methodologies employed by the terrorists.

And we cannot forget that while our border security arrangements may make it more difficult for foreign terrorists to enter island nations like Australia and New Zealand, for as long as terrorists remain creative and resourceful we can never by 100% certain of our effectiveness in keeping them out.
Growing organisations Because of this threat environment our respective governments have recognised the requirement to commit additional resources to intelligence agencies.

• ASIO has grown to just over 1220 staff and is planned to grow to around 1860 by 2010-11.

Recruitment of appropriately skilled intelligence staff and others in a range of enabling functions, will increase our capability to meet our current and expected challenges.

• In a tight employment market getting the right staff at the right time in the right place is a challenge in itself.
• We have put in place more robust processes and resources to more effectively manage the volume of work involved.
  • This is another aspect of our work where we can share our experiences and strategies and can learn from each other.

   

A shared future The foundation that was laid by Controller General Barnett and Brigadier Spry in the 1950s has been built on successfully over these past years and is as solid as bedrock. Our two services must continue to grow and to evolve if we are to remain contemporary and effective. Security intelligence work will continue to be central to the workings of government for many years to come and we have a responsibility to our governments, parliaments and people to do the very best job that we can do. That means that we will continue to face very similar challenges.

• We must remain vigilant and focussed in our efforts against known and emerging security threats - wherever they may arise.
• There will be no let-up in the responsibility placed on us to continue to discharge our duties with diligence, imagination and commitment against a global threat that is dynamic, multi-faceted and increasingly complex.
• We are growing quickly so must ensure that we manage the experience gap that incurs through training and leveraging of each others strengths.

I would like to conclude by wishing Richard a very long, fruitful and happy retirement.  I have enjoyed working with him over the almost eighteen months that I have been in ASIO and I know my colleagues have valued his cooperation for the duration of his leadership.

• From a partner's perspective he leaves our relationship on a firm and stable footing - in very good shape indeed.
• For all of us in ASIO he will remain a good friend and valued partner.

I congratulate Warren Tucker on his appointment.  In the difficult and complex environment in which security intelligence agencies must now operate, the depth and breadth of your experience in the field will be a powerful asset, not just for the service you now lead, but for your close international partners. I give you my assurance that our partnership with your service at the organisational level and the personal level will continue to be close, highly valued and quite special.