NZ green lights 'intrusive' spy ops after mosque attack

New Zealand's intelligence minister said Wednesday he was allowing spy agencies to carry out "intrusive" activities following the Christchurch mosque shootings that claimed 50 lives.

The government this week ordered a judicial inquiry into whether the South Pacific nation's intelligence services could have prevented the March 15 attack amid criticism the white supremacist gunman went unnoticed as they were too focused on Muslim extremists.

Andrew Little -- the minister responsible for the GCSB and SIS intelligence services -- said he had signed powerful surveillance warrants as information gathering continued in the wake of the attack.

"I have given authority to the agencies to do intrusive activities under warrant, the number of those (warrants) I'm not at liberty to disclose," he told Radio New Zealand.

Little said intelligence services typically monitored 30-40 people but that number had now increased, although he was unwilling to reveal by how much.

He said a warrant permitted anything from physical surveillance to the monitoring of telecommunications activity.

"The whole gambit of what would otherwise be described as intrusive activity," he told the New Zealand Herald.

"The purpose of a warrant is to authorise and effectively make lawful what would otherwise be unlawful activity."