Latest GCSB review a set up job - Labour

Labour believes the latest review of GCSB is a set up job.

Cabinet Secretary Rebecca Kitteridge has been seconded to the spy agency to undertake a full review of its systems and capabilities following its unlawful spying in the Kim Dotcom case.

Labour leader David Shearer says the Government's in damage limitation mode.

"What it's trying to do is put a fence around GCSB in hope that that will satisfy people - well it simply won't. The accountabilities for this run right to the very top."

Mr Shearer says she isn't right for the job.

"From the point of view that this is not a review that should be just contained within the reaches of GCSB, it should be a much more wide-ranging review."

He says it should be more along the lines of the review Australia undertook after the intelligence failures around the invasion of Iraq.

Dr Jim Veitch of Massey University's Defence and Security Studies Centre says the review could lead to the establishment of just one spy agency.

"It may also mean that the opportunity is taken with a person of this seniority to bring the GCSB and the SIS together because that's long been touted as a possibility."

He says Ms Kitteridge knows a lot of the conversations around the Cabinet table - and probably knows the Prime Minister's plan.

"She's in a good position because she knows all the people, she knows what the government position is, she knows the conversations amongst the ministers and I think she's probably in a very good position to make recommendations to the Prime Minister."

Dr Veitch says the Prime Minister's been signalling for some time he wants change in this area and it was just a matter of time before it came.

He says the GCSB and SIS are moving together into the same building in Wellington which is a sign they may become one.

But John Key rates that as unlikely.

"Some New Zealanders might have concerns that a merging would lead to, again, further cross-overs that were unintended. So it's really probably not practically what would happen, but it's a political perception issue, so I think it's unlikely."

Photo: David Shearer (NZ Herald)