Some might consider this to be paranoia, but there's a multitude of motives for people to acquire and/or manufacture WMDs. The actions of the SIS are therefore justified, in my opinion.
How close are we to fascist dictatorship? Maoist China, Nazi Germany and every other despotic police state has relied upon developing a culture of beady eyed, snitching individuals prepared to to report on teachers, students, colleagues, neighbors,family, friends... Think thats an over-reaction? Have a look at Naomi Wolf's 'The End of America' for a reality check. Think we are in a robust little democracy? We know our democracy is so frail we dont even expect to be listened to. We huff and puff in'non-binding'(ha) referendums, and it is clearly evident our so-called elected representatives are dancing to a different tune. This is no joke. It starts out that the terrorists are dark featured, suspicious looking foreigners with funny head coverings, but the description soon expands to include people with alternative political views, home-schoolers, people who read the wrong books...
The threat is that most university chemistry labs, hold a vast array of chemicals and substances, which in the wrong hands, could easily be mixed to create a extremely dangerous and powerful weapon. You might want to stick your head in the sand and keep on believing that nothing bad will ever happen in good old NZ,and I hope it never does, but there is nothing wrong with being vigilant.
OMG this is shock horror! I didn't expect such a paranoid Chicken-Little'ish "they're everywhere, they're everywhere!" response from our own Government. Come on SIS, state exactly what the threat is please. It's not like your track record in this area is much to go on! The Ahmed Zaoui fiasco was an embarrassment.