Key John: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government ResponseText is incorporated into the Bound VolumeKey John: Ministerial Statements — Islamic State Conflict—Government Response[Sitting date: 05 November 2014. Volume:701;Page:609. Text is incorporated into the Bound Volume.]Rt Hon JOHN KEY (Prime Minister):I wish to make a ministerial statement. The Government takes its national security obligations very seriously. As Prime Minister I have overarching responsibility for national security and today I gave a speech on the topic. I outlined how our risk and threat profile is changing the challenges we face and how the Government is responding. Much of that is due to the rapid rise of the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL). Over the last 2 years it has seized substantial territory in northern Iraq and Syria. New Zealanders will have seen the brutal and distressing methods ISIL uses including beheading displays and mass killings. ISIL’s ability to motivate Islamic radicals as well as its growth ambitions resources and methods make it a brutal threat to stability not only in the Middle East but regionally and locally too. It is estimated ISIL has around 12000 to 15000 foreign terrorist fighters of whom as many as 3000 hold Western passports from a range of countries.The rise of such a well-resourced globally focused terrorist entity highly skilled in recruitment techniques using social media is a game-changer for New Zealand. ISIL exposes us to a type of threat that we lack the legislative tools and resources to combat. As in other Western countries ISIL has been successful in recruiting New Zealanders to the cause. Government agencies have a watch-list of between 30 and 40 people of concern in the foreign fighter context. These are people in or from New Zealand who are in various ways participating in extremist behaviour. Some of those on the watch-list have travelled to Syria to engage in fighting and remain there. Others are ISIL supporters who have tried to travel to Syria or to Iraq to fight and have been prevented from leaving by cancellation of their passports.Although I am limited in what I can say it is important to note there are individuals here in New Zealand who are attracted to carrying out domestic attacks of the type that we have seen prevented in Australia and that took place in Canada. I want to stress that none of these people is a representative of the New Zealand Muslim community and I know that the vast majority of Muslims here are as distressed by ISIL’s actions and violent message as anybody is. As a Government we are doing what we can to prevent New Zealanders from going off to fight for ISIL and brutally killing innocent civilians in Iraq and Syria. Should they return to New Zealand fully radicalised and skilled in fighting they will represent a significant threat to the safety of New Zealanders so we have been cancelling people’s passports where necessary. But even those radicalised New Zealanders who have been prevented from travelling are a threat to our safety and security. In addition to those on the watch-list there are another 30 to 40 people on a list of people requiring further investigation. These people could well be added to the watch-list or given the all-clear. We will not know that until those investigations can be properly carried out.I announced today that Cabinet has agreed to a proposal for law changes in the short term—ones that cannot wait for the broader intelligence review required by law next year. I intend to seek broad political support to pass this very limited legislation which I trust that other parties will see as narrow and responsible. The first change is to give the Minister of Internal Affairs the ability to cancel a passport on the grounds of national security for to up to 3 years. At the moment the Minister can do that for only up to 1 year. Secondly I intend to allow the Minister to suspend a passport or travel document for a temporary period of no more than 10 working days. This would be used where urgent action is required but time is not available to prepare a full package of information to support a cancellation. Thirdly the SIS will be given a $7 million funding injection across the current and next financial years to increase the number of staff it has to monitor and investigate foreign terrorist fighters.Finally I want to update one aspect of the SIS surveillance powers. The SIS cannot generally undertake visual surveillance in a private setting or which would involve trespass on to private property. This means for example that the service cannot install a video camera in private premises even if it was to observe activities of a security concern like people training with weapons. This issue was dealt with on the police’s behalf in the Search and Surveillance Act of 2012. I am proposing that the SIS be given the power under warrant and with additional safeguards modelled on the Search and Surveillance Act. I am also proposing that the SIS be given an emergency surveillance power for a period not exceeding 48 hours to conduct surveillance before a warrant can be issued.The second aspect of our response to ISIL relates to our contribution to the international coalition fighting this entity. To manage a threat like this we need to be well informed and share information with our partners which is the role of the intelligence agencies. We will be stepping up our contribution to intelligence operations that offer opportunities to further understand and potentially disrupt ISIL. We will also be building capability to monitor threats from any offshoots of ISIL that threaten us at home.ISIL is not a short-term threat. Defeating it will mean winning the hearts and minds of those vulnerable to its destructive message. New Zealand as a good international citizen and as a country now elected to serve on the United Nations Security Council needs to play its part in ensuring that the longstanding and some would say intractable problems of the Middle East are addressed. Over the next 2 years we have the opportunity to attempt to ensure that the council designed to address these major issues of stability and security lifts its game.The situation in Syria and Iraq is an extreme humanitarian emergency with millions displaced by conflict. New Zealand has provided $13.5 million in aid to the region since the start of the Syrian crisis in 2011 and I am pleased to announce a further $1 million contribution today to help refugees and the internally displaced. We will also be looking at further assistance to meet the needs of Syrian and Iraqi refugees.Moving on to assisting in building a disciplined and efficient military in Iraq New Zealand cannot and should not fight Iraqis’ battles for them. In the speech today I ruled out sending SAS or any troops into combat roles in Iraq. Our military can and may well play a part in building the capability and capacity of the Iraqi forces. Should military personnel be deployed in Iraq they would be behind the wire and limited to training local forces in order to counter ISIL and legitimately protect innocent people. Cabinet has asked for further advice on this training option which will be filled by regular forces. That advice will take some time to be completed and will involve assessing how safe and secure a training location is and whether our security requirements can be met. We are talking to our longstanding partner Australia about what it is doing to help train the Iraqi forces and how we might help. New Zealand military planners will travel to the Middle East to assess the training option and then provide further information to Cabinet.We are also looking at where our military could make a contribution outside Iraq by supporting more longstanding operations where our partners have relocated resources to address ISIL. All of this will be carefully thought through before final decisions are made. As I said in the speech today New Zealand has long been portrayed as having a benign threat environment. It gives me no pleasure to say that this is changing. New Zealanders can be sure that we are taking careful and responsible steps to protect their safety and security.