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Intelligence and Security Act 2017

Authorisations - Intelligence warrants - Authorised activities and powers

67: Authorised activities

You could also call this:

"What spies are allowed to do with special permission"

Illustration for Intelligence and Security Act 2017

An intelligence warrant is like a special permission slip that lets certain people do things that would normally be against the law. You might be wondering what kind of things they can do with this permission. They can do things like watch people or places without them knowing, listen to private conversations, search places or things, or take things that don't belong to them.

They can also ask another country to do something that would be against the law if they did it themselves. You might hear the term "covert collection capability" - this means a secret way of gathering information. They can take steps to protect this secret way of gathering information.

They can even do things to gather information from people, as long as they don't use violence or try to interfere with the law. If the person in charge of the Government Communications Security Bureau gets an intelligence warrant, they can do extra things to keep the government's communication systems safe.

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View the original legislation for this page at https://legislation.govt.nz/act/public/1986/0120/latest/link.aspx?id=DLM6921073.

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66: Matters required to be stated in intelligence warrant, or

"What an intelligence warrant must include"

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68: Powers of New Zealand Security Intelligence Service acting under intelligence warrant, or

"What the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service can do when they have a special permission called an intelligence warrant"

Part 4Authorisations
Intelligence warrants: Authorised activities and powers

67Authorised activities

  1. An intelligence warrant may authorise the carrying out of 1 or more of the following activities that would otherwise be unlawful:

  2. conducting surveillance in respect of 1 or more—
    1. persons or classes of persons:
      1. places or classes of places:
        1. things or classes of things:
        2. intercepting any private communications or classes of private communications:
          1. searching 1 or more—
            1. places or classes of places:
              1. things or classes of things:
              2. seizing—
                1. 1 or more communications or classes of communications:
                  1. information or 1 or more classes of information:
                    1. 1 or more things or classes of things:
                    2. requesting the government of, or an entity in, another jurisdiction to carry out an activity that, if carried out by an intelligence and security agency, would be an unlawful activity:
                      1. taking any action to protect a covert collection capability:
                        1. any human intelligence activity to be carried out for the purpose of collecting intelligence, not being an activity that—
                          1. involves the use or threat of violence against a person; or
                            1. perverts, or attempts to pervert, the course of justice.

                            2. An intelligence warrant issued to the Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau may, in addition to any of the activities specified in subsection (1), authorise the doing of any other act that is necessary or desirable to protect the security and integrity of communications and information infrastructures of importance to the Government of New Zealand (including identifying and responding to threats or potential threats to those communications or infrastructures) without the consent of any person.