NZSIS transfers 1951 waterfront dispute files to Archives NZ

Prime Minister and Minister in Charge of the New Zealand Security Intelligence Service Helen Clark said today that the NZSIS, in consultation with the Police, is transferring a set of Police Special Branch Files about the 1951 waterfront dispute, to Archives New Zealand.

"These files comprise a unique record of New Zealand’s most significant and confrontational industrial dispute," Helen Clark said.

"It lasted for 151 days, from 15 February to 15 July 1951 and has long been of wide interest to the general public, and to social and political historians.

"The NZSIS is transferring the files about the 1951 waterfront dispute to Archives NZ as part of meeting its obligations under the Public Records Act 2005.

"This is the first transfer in an ongoing programme to declassify and transfer records from the NZSIS to Archives NZ. Taking into account feedback from enquiries received under the Official Information and Privacy Acts, including those from historians and researchers, the Service has ascertained that records from the early Cold War period are of most immediate interest to the public. Priority is therefore being given to transferring these, as well as the records of the World War II Security Intelligence Bureau and the remainder of the old Police Records held by the NZSIS."