Maire Leadbeater is a tangata tiriti author whose new book The Enemy Within discusses the human cost of surveillance and its impact on activism.
Leadbeater was surveilled by the New Zealand state from the age of 10 as a child in the 1950s during the height of the Cold War because she was born into a family whose parents were communists.
Although not a communist herself, her background in social movements and activism made her particularly aware of what she says is the infiltration and intimidation by New Zealand intelligence services and how it could potentially have negative and harmful impacts on movements.
The Enemy Within was written using archival and formerly secret material as well as released SIS files, to examine state intrusion into the lives of individuals and movements. Including the intimate ways in which they operated, noting gossip and not only infiltrating meetings but also homes.
The book has a personal element, with Leadbetter arguing surveillance was used to penalise activists working for social change, including harming careers and denying the community valuable contributions from these individuals.
Impacts of surveillance on Māori?
New Zealand is part of the Five Eyes intelligence alliance and there isn’t public data available to suggest Māori are being disproportionately impacted by state surveillance.
However, in May, a Privacy Commissioner study revealed Māori were more concerned about privacy in every way. Māori were also more likely to express concerns about the bias in facial recognition.
Leadbeater believes state surveillance has moved on from targeting communists and is focused on “extremists”, a subjective term she says may impact Māori in light of Aotearoa history.
An example is the Tuhoe raids where police used the 2002 Terrorism Suppression Act to carry out intrusive covert surveillance without evidence to argue terrorism activity had occurred.
Leadbeater says during the anti-Springbok tour movement, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon raised the spectre of “Maori radicals”.
There are historical instances where Māori resistance has been deemed a potential threat to the state, and has been used to justify colonial activity, for instance labelling of Māori as “rebels” and using the Suppression of Rebellion Act 1863, which led to raupatu, or land confiscations from people who were trying to protect their land.
“As movements became larger and more mainstream, for example the anti-nuclear movement, it is my sense that surveillance lessened,” she said.
“So perhaps the huge hikoi and support for Te Tiriti means both Māori and non-Māori involved would be safer from surveillance."
But she said it all goes back to the fact these agencies operate “in the shadows” so it is difficult to know about contemporary practice.
Debating the need for NZ intelligence agencies
Leadbeater believes secret intelligence services lack transparency and accountability and have brought more harm than good to New Zealand.
Heightened concerns for Leadbeater today include greater technological reach in electronic surveillance, access to texts, emails, phone calls and a piece of legislation from 2017, which combined the two intelligence agencies, the SIS and GCSB (Government Communications Security Bureau) under one administrative structure. And one part she considers “devious means” in the legislation is the ability to adopt false identities for spying.
She points out that none of the three terrorist attacks in Aotearoa have been prevented by secret intelligence services - the Trades Hall bombing in 1984, the 1985 Rainbow Warrior bombing or the Christchurch mosque shootings in 2019.
Recently a group of lawyers called for an inquiry into whether New Zealand spy agencies are assisting Israel’s war in Gaza. Leadbeater says this is important and these agencies need to be scrutinised and have more public accountability into their actions.
Her conclusion in the book is New Zealand doesn’t need intelligence agencies and she believes their work could be conducted by police who, as an institution, have been more accountable for their actions.
“Everything they focus on when you boil it all down, is isn’t that a crime and can be dealt with under our criminal justice system,” she said.
“Terrorism is a terrible, terrible thing, of course, but it is ultimately a crime."
Not living in distrust but drawing strength from each other in unity
In her experience the threat of informants working for spy agencies caused much distrust and fractures within movements.
She says it isn’t possible to know and in her experience they usually pick the wrong person as a suspect.
“If you develop any sense of suspicion and lack of trust in a group, that’s the worst thing you can do,” she said.
She says what is needed is the wonderful feeling of unity. Leadbeater says activism is her happy place, as is being in a library doing research but also says throughout her life she has drawn strength from the people beside her within the movements.
“I went on the hīkoi across the harbourbridge and that was the absolute feeling I had the whole way that suddenly all these people were completely different ages and sexes but everybody just doing the same thing for the same purpose. And that’s the most uplifting thing. And we don’t ever want to jeopardise that.”
