Spooks spied on high school 'revolutionaries'

TEENAGE THREAT TO SOCIETY? Sue Bradford's SIS file.

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As seasoned political activists, Green MPs Sue Bradford and Catherine Delahunty always assumed the SIS was watching but they never suspected the spying began when they were teenagers.

Thirty-two dollars seems cheap for a revolution, but at 16, Catherine Delahunty wasn't aiming too high.

As leader of a teenage group seeking greater rights for secondary pupils, she was more interested in education reform than overthrowing the state.

The problem, she explained to a 1970 congress of adult activists in Wellington, was her group needed cash for their "high school revolution".

The activists were not the only ones listening. Somewhere in the audience was a Security Intelligence Service spy who thought Ms Delahunty's fundraising methods worth reporting.

"... the reference to the shortage of money led to the 'passing of a hat' and a collection of $32," says the note in her file - a record that began in October 1968, when she was just 14.

In April 1968, Sue Bradford was 15, a fresh-faced sixth-former at Auckland Girls' Grammar and also, apparently, a potential national security threat.

She came to the spooks' attention when her name appeared on a mailing list for the Progressive Youth Movement, which was linked to the Communist Party.

The extent of the spying was discovered when the women, now Green MPs, asked for their SIS records after colleague Keith Locke, watched from age 11 because of his parents' communist views, found his file continued for seven years after he became an MP.

The SIS has since been ordered to cease spying on subjects if they become MPs, unless there are clear national security concerns and the Speaker agrees.

Ms Bradford's file ends in March 1999, the year she entered Parliament, and Ms Delahunty's finishes in March 2002, the year she sought selection for the Greens.

Ms Bradford who had a lengthy and confrontational history as an unemployed rights' activist was not surprised she had a file, but was curious it ended when it did.

"I'm very suspicious about the way the file just chops off at 1999, especially as I was very involved in the organisation of the demonstrations at Apec in late '99."

She found it odd there was little mention of her involvement in the 1981 Springbok tour protests and other movements, although it was possible that information was held by police.

A covering letter from SIS director Warren Tucker says her file contains 330 classified reports, some compiled by other agencies. Almost all the SIS reports were withheld for security reasons, such as protecting methods and sources, but a brief summary was provided.

Ms Delahunty was surprised her file did not include her time as a leader of anti-goldmining protests in Coromandel from the mid-1980s to the mid-1990s, although she also suspected that information was held by police.

Like Ms Bradford, she expected the SIS to hold a file, but was surprised it started when it did.

The covering letter to her from Dr Tucker says she was never considered a security concern, and her file dated from a "different period". Normal practice then would not always apply now.

Ms Delahunty said the fact her time as a high school idealist merited SIS attention was "quaint and vaguely ridiculous", but there was a serious side.

"There wasn't anything we were doing that was actually a subversive, terrorist threat to the state, and yet we were being treated as if we needed to be under surveillance. That's an indictment of the times, but it could still happen now."

- © Fairfax NZ News