New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
| Te Pā Whakamarumaru | |
Logo of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service
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| Agency overview | |
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| Formed | 1956 |
| Headquarters | Defence House, 2–12 Aitken Street, Wellington 41°16′37″S 174°46′46″E / 41.276823°S 174.779439°E |
| Employees | 200 |
| Minister responsible |
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| Agency executive |
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| Website | www |
The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (NZSIS or SIS) (Māori: Te Pā Whakamarumaru) is New Zealand's primary national intelligence agency, responsible for national security (including counterterrorism and counterintelligence) and foreign intelligence.
The First National Government established the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service on 28 November 1956 as the New Zealand Security Service, aiming to counter perceived increased Soviet intelligence operations in Australia and New Zealand in the wake of the Petrov Affair of 1954, which had damaged Soviet-Australian relations. The New Zealand Security Service was modelled on the British domestic intelligence agency MI5 and its first Director of Security was Brigadier William Gilbert, a former New Zealand Army officer. The organization's existence remained a state secret until 1960.
According to the journalist and author Graeme Hunt, domestic intelligence and counter-subversion prior to the establishment of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service was primary in the hands of the New Zealand Police Force (1919–1941; 1945–1949) and of the New Zealand Police Force Special Branch (1949–1956). Another predecessor to the NZSIS during the Second World War was the short-lived New Zealand Security Intelligence Bureau (SIB). The SIB, modeled after the British MI5, was headed by Major Kenneth Folkes, a junior MI5 officer. The conman Syd Ross duped Major Folkes into believing that there was a "Nazi plot" in New Zealand. Due to this embarrassment, Prime Minister Peter Fraser dismissed Folkes in February 1943 and the SIB merged into the New Zealand Police. Following the end of World War II in 1945, the Police Force resumed responsibility for domestic intelligence.
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