{"id":440541,"date":"2026-05-22T20:19:11","date_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:19:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440541\/"},"modified":"2026-05-22T20:19:11","modified_gmt":"2026-05-22T20:19:11","slug":"parliamentary-services-to-strengthen-security-after-threats-to-mps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/440541\/","title":{"rendered":"Parliamentary Services to strengthen security after threats to MPs"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/4PJ2XQA_copyright_image_34518.jpeg\" width=\"1050\" height=\"656\" alt=\"New Zealand parliament; beehive\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"photo-captioned__information\">\nThe changes came as the agency reported that threats against MPs were increasing.<br \/>\nPhoto: RNZ \/ Alexander Robertson\n<\/p>\n<p>Parliamentary Services is strengthening its security capability, despite a shake-up affecting office security and staffing gaps inside its cyber team.<\/p>\n<p>The agency said a smaller unit overseeing security assets in MPs&#8217; electorate and community offices &#8211; including CCTV and electronic entry systems &#8211; had been merged into the broader electorate office support structure to improve coordination and service delivery.<\/p>\n<p>It also confirmed that Parliament&#8217;s cyber security operation has been without a permanent leader since December and that two senior IT managers who left late last year are still being replaced.<\/p>\n<p>The changes came as the agency reported that threats against MPs were increasing.<\/p>\n<p>Parliamentary Service chief executive Rafael Gonzalez-Montero said there had been no changes to the wider Parliament security team responsible for precinct security, intelligence monitoring, and member protection.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;The security asset team plays a big role indirectly in MPs&#8217; safety, so this merge means we now have all staff who are responsible for an electorate and community office &#8211; from leases, building work, IST, and these security assets &#8211; all working together,&#8221; Gonzalez-Montero said.<\/p>\n<p>He said the changes would streamline office setup processes while maintaining security oversight.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;Measures like controls in electorate and community offices and changes from the Parliament Act illustrate how seriously we are taking security.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Gonzalez-Montero confirmed Parliament&#8217;s cyber security team had been operating under acting leadership since December.<\/p>\n<p>While declining to comment on individual employment matters, Gonzalez-Montero said two IT managers had also left at the end of 2025 and recruitment was underway for replacement positions alongside a newly established IT leadership role.<\/p>\n<p>&#8221;Digital security is critical to promoting Parliament&#8217;s information, systems, and services. Our focus is on having an operating model in place to address challenges by focusing effort across core security functions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/radionz.us6.list-manage.com\/subscribe?u=211a938dcf3e634ba2427dde9&amp;id=b3d362e693\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Sign up for Ng\u0101 Pitopito K\u014drero<\/a>, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The changes came as the agency reported that threats against MPs were increasing. Photo: RNZ \/ Alexander Robertson&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":440542,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[48,47,42,43,49,46,44,45,40,38,41,39],"class_list":["post-440541","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-audio","tag-current-affairs","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-podcasts","tag-public-radio","tag-radio-new-zealand","tag-rnz","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440541","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=440541"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/440541\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/440542"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=440541"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=440541"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=440541"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}