Last week was quite an interesting week. Intelligence and Security in a Free Society: Report of the First Independent Review of Intelligence and Security in New Zealand was released by Hon Sir Michael Cullen, KNZM and Dame Patsy Reddy, DNZM. Local media was quick to respond by focusing on various aspects like “permission to spy on Kiwis’ private information“, “civil union” of agencies, privacy, powers and “Free society“. All these journalists are right within their means to raising these preliminary questions about privacy, free society, spying and the like. But the lack of further analyses in the follow-up indicates that the issues has already been swept under the carpet.

I was expecting the initial enthusiasm of these journalists to continue with further discussions. Looks like nobody cares about security and intelligence after the initial excitement of anything newsworthy. Zizek does not worry about mass surveillance. He has a very different reason for his viewpoint: “it’s stupid computer program if experts are analyzing, 90% of people should be employed to analyze it”. Clearly, mass surveillance creates massive quantity of data for which you may need “90% of people” to properly analyse it failing which piles of information would be of no use to anyone or for operations overt or covert.

News about the release of this intelligence review report was spread over half the front-page of the Dominion Post (a newspaper published from Wellington) on Thursday, 10 March 2016. The other half was devoted to an incident where four policemen were reported injured. My thoughts and prayers are with the injured policemen.

According to a chart on page 166 of the intelligence review report, New Zealand Police is one of the core agencies of New Zealand’s intelligence system. Digging further into the columns of the front page revealed that the policemen were not ambushed rather the police were fired upon during an operation supported by aerial surveillance. Some intelligence and analysis about an armed offender beforehand could have proved really useful. Luckily, the operation ended with the alleged gunmen surrendering with no further injuries to anyone. Maori cultural response of the police was welcomed by all but one.

In the meanwhile, finger pointing took a different turn and it all came down to armed offenders and the police response. The presence of military style weapons raised a flag. Also there are some concerns about police ‘underspend‘. By the looks of it, everyone is keen on an inquiry and the New Zealand Police Association has welcomed calls for firearms inquiry.