Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Minister of State Security

Open Letter to the Prime Minister and Minister of State Security, the Honourable Helen Clark, on Opening the SIS Archives to Scholarly Research, Various, October 2002.

Dear Prime Minister,

We the undersigned, New Zealand scholars of History and Political Science, are writing to you to urge for a review of access to the archives of the New Zealand Security and Intelligence Service (SIS). New Zealand is unique among its close allies in denying access to the archives of its intelligence services. Indeed, the archival policies of much of the former Soviet bloc are currently more open and unrestricted than those of New Zealand. The norm in other Western countries is to release information for public access from security services such as the SIS after a 30 year period. Material regarded as politically sensitive can be withheld for up to 50 years.

The SIS was formed in 1956, and under the norms of other Western countries the service should have started making its archives available from 1986 on. However, on the authority of current SIS Director Richard Woods, "To date no SIS records have been released to the public." According to current New Zealand legislation, SIS files are exempt from deposit with Archives New Zealand under a Ministerial Certificate and applications for access are considered under the Official Information Act. SIS records are withheld under Sections 6 (a) and (b) of the Official Information Act 1982 for reasons of security. For reasons of security and privacy the SIS even withholds access to files of the NZ Police Special Branch whose files it took over after the SIS was set up in 1956.

Currently the New Zealand Government policy is to deny access to SIS files on the basis of three concerns: security issues, privacy issues and the need to protect information provided by other governments to New Zealand. All of these justifications are no longer relevant in the present day.
 
In the post-Cold War era the main security concerns and preoccupations of the Cold War period such as the threat of communism, the international role of the Soviet Union and so on, are no longer relevant. There can be no serious justification for denying researchers access to the files of a bygone era on such topics.
 
Privacy issues can be addressed in the same way that they are by security agencies in other Western countries, whereby the names of informers and agency officials are blacked out while still making the file available to the researcher.
 
The third concern used to justify banning access is also no longer relevant, as much of the information New Zealand has had from other Western security organisations is now available to researchers according to the archival release policies of those countries. Furthermore, the New Zealand Ministry of Foreign Affairs which has a much more open archival policy than the SIS, while having access to similarly sensitive material from overseas organisations, already deals with the problem of researchers using materials from foreign countries in its files by allowing the researcher to view, but not cite, such documents. As researchers who have access to sensitive information are required to sign a copy of the Official Information Act and agree to allow officials to view any written results of the research before it is published, there should be no concern about the release of historical, but still sensitive, information.

In conclusion Prime Minister, in the interest of scholarly research into New Zealand's foreign and defence policy and its place in the world and in the interest of a more open and democratic society in New Zealand, we ask the New Zealand government to bring the SIS in line with its international counterparts. We urge you and your government without delay, to set up a process for the opening of the agency's files according to the 30/50 year release dates and to deal with privacy concerns by means of deleting sensitive names, while still making files available to researchers and the interested public.

Yours sincerely,
Signatures (Name, Position, Department, Institution):

Dr Joe Atkinson, Deputy HOD, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Dr Patrick Barrett, Lecturer, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato; Professor Jacob Bercovitch, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Anne-Marie Brady, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Paul G. Buchanan, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Dr Alan Cocker, Associate Head of School, School of Communication Studies, Auckland Institute of Technology; Dr Campbell Craig, Lecturer, Department of History, University of Canterbury; Graeme Dunstall, Senior Lecturer, Department of History, University of Canterbury; Dr Karl DeRouen, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Shaun Goldfinch, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Joanna Goven, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Bob Gregory, Associate-Professor, School of Government, Victoria University of Wellington; Professor Peter Hempenstall, Department of History, University of Canterbury; Dr Matt Hirshberg, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Stephen Hoadley, Associate Professor, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Emeritus Professor Keith Jackson, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Jon Johansson, Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington; Dr Geoffrey Kemp, Lecturer, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Dr Priya Kurian, Senior Lecturer Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato; Dr Ron MacIntyre, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Malcolm MacKinnon, Independent Historian, Wellington; Dr Elizabeth McLeay, Associate Professor, Political Science and International Relations, Victoria University of Wellington; Dr Pat Moloney, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, Victoria University of Wellington; Professor John Morrow, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Dr Jim Ockey, Senior Lecturer, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Robert Patman, Associate Professor, Department of Political Science, University of Otago; Dr Ron Smith, Director, International Relations and Security Studies, Department of Political Science and Public Policy, University of Waikato; Dr Naimah Talib, Adjunct Fellow, Department of Political Science, University of Canterbury; Dr Kerry Taylor, Senior Lecturer, School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Massey University; Professor Margaret Tennant, School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Massey University; Professor Jack Vowles, Department of Political Studies, University of Auckland; Dr James Watson, Head of School, School of History, Philosophy and Politics, Massey University.

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