At present, New Zealand's intelligence community has approximately 550 employees,[1] and has a combined budget of around NZ$145 million.
While both major political parties (Labour and National) broadly support the current arrangements, there exists a movement which seeks an overhaul of the system, or even the outright abolition of New Zealand's intelligence agencies.
The cases of Bill Sutch, Aziz Choudry, and Ahmed Zaoui, for example, have all prompted claims that the SIS has violated individual rights.
In 2006, the director of the GCSB, Warren Tucker, took the unprecedented step of publishing a general response to criticisms of his agency.
[15] New Zealand's intelligence agencies, particularly the GCSB and NZSIS, drew criticism for failing to detect and prevent the Christchurch mosque shootings which occurred on 15 March 2019.
In December 2020, a Royal Commission of Inquiry into the mosque shootings criticised intelligence agencies for focusing on Islamic extremism at the expense of other threats including White supremacy and recommended creating a new agency focusing on counter-terrorism strategy.