Land of the Long White Lab Coat: Aotearoa New Zealand and the Laws of Trusted Research

• Author: Brendan Walker-Munro
• Position: Senior Lecturer, Southern Cross University, Lismore, Australia
• Pages: 1-24

1

LAND OF THE LONG WHITE LAB COAT:

AOTEAROA NEW ZEALAND AND THE

LAWS OF TRUSTED RESEARCH

*

Abstract

As an island nat ion, New Zea land punches well above its weight internationally in

terms of both tec hnological inn ovation and higher educat ion. Yet at the intersec tion of

both domains, New Zealand has lagged in the protection of sensitive and critical university

research – it takes lit tle part in the academic disco urse surrounding this conce pt (which

the New Zealand government refers to as “trusted research”) and has enacted no new

laws in the space si nce the late 2000s. In do ing so, New Zea land risks fal ling behind it s

Indo-Pacic neighbo urs and allies including Australia, the United States and Japan. is

paper therefore responds to both s hortfalls in rese arch on the subjec t of trusted rese arch

in New Zealand, by providin g a legal analysis of the frameworks which protect uni versity

research and promoting several law reforms which could uplift the nation’s trusted

research position . Noting the increasing importance of New Zealand’s role in resisting the

actions of foreign i nterference and espionage in the region, this paper ar gues for a most

robust securit y posture across New Zealand’s univers ity landscape.

I. Introduction

The experience of Aot earoa New Zea land wit h espionage a nd foreign inter ference

has tha nkfull y been minima l. Or, perhaps a more real istic view would be t o say that

the countr y’s experiences of espionage and foreign interference have been spaced

far enough apart (and reported on so minimally) that they have not remained in

popular memory for long. The expulsion of diplomats Sergei Budnik and Dmitri

Razgovorov i n the 1970s, and the i nfamous failed pr osecution of diplomat Bil l Sutch

are not frequen t topics of discussion by New Zea land policyma kers.1 Memories that

do not run so long may recall New Zea land’s rs t academic spy scandal in 2004 ,

where a former le cturer a t the Auckland University of Technolog y seemed to ee

1 Graeme Hunt Spies And Revolutionaries: A History of New Zealand Subversion (Reed Publishing,

Auckland, 2007).

* Senior Lec turer, Sou thern Cro ss Univers ity, Lismor e, Austr alia .

2[Vol 31, 2024]

the country after being associated with Mossad agents arrested and jailed for

attempti ng to obtain a New Z ealand passpor t.2

So, it was of some surprise when, in March 2021, the New Zealand Secret

Intell igence Service (NZSIS) con stituted under the Int elligence and Secur ity Act 2017

(NZ) (ISA ), engaged i n a urry of activit y to count er foreign int erference activ ities,

largely by t he People’s Republic of China .3 Then, in August 2023, N ZSIS published its

rst unc lassified th reat assessment. In that document , NZSIS disclosed t hat China,

Iran and Russia were active in disinformation, espionage and foreign inter ference

activities across New Zealand.4 R elevant to th is paper, the NZSIS w arned of espiona ge

again st “academ ic and resear ch ins titutions”, as wel l as “societa l inter ference …

intended to inuence, di srupt or su bvert New Zea land’s communities and non-

government se ctors … include[in g] New Zealand’s ac ademic sector – encomp assing

instit utions, employees and st udents”.5

As is evident f rom the NZSIS reports , universities in Aot earoa New Zeala nd face

a wicked problem. L ike many other Western demo cracies (and doubly so because of

its smal l geographical size), the country is dependent on inter national students to

fund resea rch,6 and has ig nored repeated war nings since 2014 a bout the dangers of

this overre liance.7 Yet there can be no dou bt that universit ies are also faci ng threats

from foreign intel ligence agencies and ocials , and have been for decades. In recent

memory, one can consider :

2 David Ficklin g “ ‘Mossad spies’ jailed over New Zea land passport fr aud” (16 Ju ly 2004) e

Guardian <www.theg uardia n.com>; David Coh en “Disappea rance of New Ze aland Le cturer May

Be Tied to Israeli Spy Scand al” (28 July 2004) e Chronicle <www.chronicle.c om>; and Cather ine

Masters and Phil Taylor, “Friends shocked at ‘fourth man’ tag” (31 July 2004) NZ Herald <www.

nzherald.co.nz>.

3 Anne-Marie Br ady “Magic Weapons a nd Foreign Interfere nce in New Zealand : how it started ,

how it’s going ” (2021) 17(2) Pol Qua rt 70.

4 NZSIS “New Zealand’s S ecurity Threa t Environment 2023 : An assessment by the New Z ealand

Securit y Intelli gence Servic e” (11 August 20 23) <www.nzsi s.govt.n z>.

5 At 25 and 29.

6 Pre-COVID, international students made up nearly 20 per cent of all student enrolments,

second only t o Australi a. Tijmen Weber, Chri stof van Mol and Ma arten Wolbers “I nternationa l

Students as So urces of Income? Movin g Beyond the Neolibera l Framin g of Internationa lization”

(2023) J Stud In t Ed <https://doi.org/10. 1177/10283153231 211999>.

7 Dave Meur, Fen Nee Chong and Alastair Nisbet “The Growing Importance and Reliance on

Interna tional Students in New Zeala nd Un iversities: A Loomin g Cri sis” (Paper presented at

the Joint Australian Association for Research in Education and New Zealand Associat ion for

Researc h in Education Conferenc e, Brisbane, Aust ralia, 30 Novemb er 2014–4 December 2014);

and John Gerrits en “Universi ties becom ing ‘too reliant’ on Chines e students” (26 Augu st 2019)

University World News <www.universityworldnews.com>.