Let's talk about our national security
The National Security Long-term Insights Briefing is a joint briefing from the Security and Intelligence Board agencies, led by the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
The nine agencies working on this National Security Long-term Insights Briefing are: Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC); Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade; Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment; Ministry of Defence; Government Communications Security Bureau; NZ Customs Service, NZ Defence Force; NZ Police and NZ Security Intelligence Service.
The topic of the briefing is ‘Engaging an increasingly diverse Aotearoa New Zealand on national security risks, challenges and opportunities.’
What is a Long-term Insights Briefing?
Long-term Insights Briefings are a new way for government to identify and explore issues that matter for the future wellbeing of the people of New Zealand. Each Government agency is required to develop a Long-term Insights Briefing at least once every three years.
For more information on Long-term Insight Briefings, please visit the Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission website.
You can read the National Security Long-term Insights Briefing here.
We have translated the briefing into Te Reo Māori, Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Samoan, and Spanish.
Public consultation was central to developing the National Security Long-term Insights Briefing
We are grateful to all those who engaged with us during the briefing development process, summarised below:
- Consultation on the Briefing topic (October-November 2021). This was the first opportunity for New Zealanders to contribute to the briefing. Public feedback on the topic helped us scope and confirm the topic and consider content included in the briefing.
- Focused engagement with specific groups (October 2021 to March 2022, and in July 2022). This included engaging with academics (including Māori academics), recent migrants and other ethnic and faith-based communities, youth, non-profits, and businesses. Across both online consultation on the topic and focused engagement with specific groups, we received 105 submissions.
- An independent National Security Public Survey (February - March 2022) was run to help provide a representative sample of views on national security from the public.
- We ran four hui (three in person, one virtual) with ethnic and faith-based community leaders with support from the Ministry of Ethnic Communities (July 2022).
- Public consultation on the draft National Security Long-term Insights Briefing (October 2022) generated 45 written submissions.
You can read a summary of what we heard through public consultation and engagement here.
What next?
The final version of the briefing was tabled by the Minister for National Security and Intelligence in May 2023. The Government Administration Committee will consider the briefing and may refer it to another subject matter orientated committee for deeper exploration of the risks and issues presented.
While we seek to grow public understanding and conversation on national security issues by publishing the National Security Long-term Insights Briefing, it is not government policy.
Aotearoa’s National Security Strategy will build on and take forward this conversation through more tangible actions and government policy.