By: Barry Soper | Friday, September 28, 2012 6:00 AM

If you're looking for a job as a spy there could shortly be a few going at the Government Communications Security Bureau, although they've set the bar high.

As part of their recruitment blurb they tell us that they provide world class intelligence and information assurance to the Government.

And they tell us they employ the cream of New Zealand's talent and many of their people are recognised as world leaders in their field of expertise. Their team, they say, is intelligent, curious and technically savvy.

They find ways to do things better, faster and smarter and they have fund along the way they say. There is more, but it's all along the same lines.

What's the bet there won't be much fun over at the spy HQ at the moment among the 330 staff who toil away in the bunker, spending more than $56 million a year.

Everyone knows about the trench-coated Security Intelligent Service and the pie and the Penthouse they like to carry in their briefcases. But little was known until know about the much bigger, international spy agency that runs the Waihopai and Tangimoana spy bases.

We now know they're allowed to snoop on foreigners but not on Kiwis which is reassuring. And the report into the Kim Dotcom case tells us it was all a big mistake with his immigration status because the law had been changed three years ago and they spied on him thinking he was a foreigner rather than a permanent resident which was bestowed on him because he brought in stacks of cash.

The inquiry into the botch up was carried out by the Inspector General of Intelligence and Security, whose job it is to ensure that our spy agencies abide by the law. The fact that the GCSB didn't, is then surely an indictment on him - certainly the opposition parties are saying he was doing little more than navel gazing and came up with little more than fluff.

But we can all be rest assured, the boss of the spy agency says he's determined to restore public confidence in the organisation, an organisation that the public knew very little about to have confidence in it the first place.

The agency's website tells us there are no vacancies there at the moment. They should create one, for an immigration expert!

Photo: stock.xchng