By Tova O’Brien
Much like Kim Dotcom, spies aren't fond of being spied upon.
Because of the attempts of 3 News to talk to staff outside the Government Communications Security Bureau (GCSB) building this morning, other staff members were contacted on their way to work and ushered through a side gate down a bank.
The GCSB illegally spied on Dotcom because it didn't fully understand the immigration law. An audit of the past three years since the law changed shows the agency worked with police 58 times, and three of those cases could be illegal.
Security expert Nicky Hager questions that relationship.
“They've made it so they're on call for the New Zealand police and quite possibly other police forces to just say, ‘Will you do some quiet spying for us on the side?’”
There are 330 people working for the GCSB. Over the last three mistake-prone years there's been a heavy rotation of directors. There was Bruce Ferguson, then Simon Murdoch, Sir Jerry Mateparae, Simon Murdoch again, and now Ian Fletcher.
And then there's Paul Neazor – the spy watchdog who couldn't remember the agency's past mistakes.
It was Mr Murdoch who signed off on the Dotcom surveillance, and he's now heading an inquiry into the Rena disaster.
Both the police and their minister refused to be interviewed, and the GCSB didn't reply at all – so it seems we'll continue to only hear about their secretive relationship when things go unlawfully wrong.
3 News