Police should only be investigating groups that present "a real or credible risk to the safety and security of communities", Prime Minister John Key says.
Police Minister Judith Collins today talked to Commissioner Howard Broad about allegations ex-partner of Christchurch man Rob Gilchrist made yesterday that Mr Gilchrist had been spying on several peaceful protest groups for police for years.
Rochelle Rees, an animal rights and Labour Party activist, discovered Mr Gilchrist had been paid by counter-terrrorism police to spy on protest groups when she helped her then-partner fix his computer.
Mr Gilchrist, heavily involved in various campaigns and protests over the last decade, was paid to pass information on the groups' plans and members to the police Special Investigation Group (SIG), the Sunday Star-Times reported.
The SIG teams were set up in 2004 to focus on terrorism and threats to national security. They had monitored Greenpeace, animal rights and climate change campaigners, and Iraq war protesters.
Mr Gilchrist helped arrange protests and had become friends with many campaigners.
He had sent information to an anonymous email address traced to two Christchurch-based SIG officers, Detective Peter Gilroy and Detective Senior Sergeant John Sjoberg.
Earlier this year, Mr Gilchrist said Thompson and Clark Investigations (TCIL), an investigations company employed by Solid Energy, offered him money for information about anti-mining group Save Happy Valley Coalition.
Mr Key today said police investigations were an operational matter and the Government could not direct who it investigated.
But the spying allegations raised some concerns, he said.
"I think the main point here is we would need to be satisfied as any New Zealander would that those being investigated were worthy of investigation, in other words, they present a real or credible risk to the safety and security of communities, not just a group the police target because they feel like it," he said on TVNZ's Breakfast programme.
He said he would be concerned if frivolous investigations led to a loss of public loss of confidence in the police's judgment.
"I wouldn't like an individual group like Greenpeace to be targeted," he said on NewstalkZB.
However, he would be more comfortable if it was individuals who were being investigated rather than organisations.
But he said police based their actions on a wide range of information and even environmental groups could "undertake quite violent behaviour".
Green MP Keith Locke yesterday called for Mrs Collins to launch an inquiry into the SIG.
Labour leader Phil Goff said the previous government was not aware of the spying activity and he would be concerned if police were misusing the extra funding they had been granted by him, in 2004 as foreign affairs minister, to tackle terrorism.
Mr Broad did not believe an inquiry was needed but he was seeking more information about the cases.
He defended the use of informants, saying they were used for a range of inquiries including murder.
The SIG was meant to assess threats from individuals who may or may not be members of groups.
"(People who) want to do some damage, they want to do some violent things," he said on Radio New Zealand.
"Our job is to identify those people and do something about it."
Mr Broad said police were not targeting peaceful protesters but if they were alerted to the possibility of violent action or vandalism they acted.
"The threshold is someone or something has alerted us to the fact that there is some real risk that a person might carry their intention through into some violent act."
He expected complaints would be made about the spying and would be seeking additional information himself.
"I will form a judgment. Whether I speak publicly or not is another matter."
Mrs Collins said Mr Broad assured her police were working within their responsibilities in their operation of SIGs.
"In a free society such as we have in New Zealand, it is important that the rights of groups to undertake legitimate and lawful activity is upheld," she said.
Mrs Collins would not comment further saying it was important that the police were able to operate free of political influence.
