New Zealand , considered a relatively ' safe ' country , has experienced few terrorist incidents in its short history . Prior to 2001 , incidents included the bombings of the Huntly rail bridge in 1951 , the Whanganui Computer Centre in 1982 , the Wellington Trades Hall in 1984 and the Greenpeace vessel '' The Rainbow Warrior '' in 1985 . Contrary to the popular association between terrorism and insurgency , the latter two of the four were perpetrated by state or state-aligned actors , as noted by Omar Hamed . Due to these incidents , New Zealand had already established prior to this act , " A comprehensive legislative and substantive counter-terrorist framework ... " However the growth of international terrorism in recent years , alluded to by then Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade Phil Goff in the bill 's first reading , gave rise to the need to introduce new , " comprehensive " anti-terror legislation . The examples he gave were the Lockerbie bombing , the World Trade Centre bombing and the Nairobi embassy attack . Goff introduced the Terrorism ( bombings and financing ) bill to parliament on 3 May 2001 . Seen by many as simply the enactment of two recent international conventions , the bill was considered unremarkable and garnered widespread lukewarm support . The bill was then sent to the Foreign Affairs , Defence and Trade select committee for review and submissions
Nairobi embassy attack .
1998 United States embassy bombings
Terrorism Suppression Act 2002