This is specifically New Zealand and this is an article about what is their job.
Here it is revealed they are permitted (under warrent) to copy data from NZ citizens networks | home devices.
It also indicates they are not permitted to keep that copy "for later on" after it has been examined.
There are many facets to SigInt - not the least (and one of the earliest applications) is the simple recording and mapping of messages - not their contents, just the mere fact that a message was broadcast or sent from Location X at Time T.
Here, specifically, the discussion is about the intrusion into a network (home LAN, etc) to retrieve data rather than the mere recording of a transmission across a wire or through a public network.
> "Our legislation ... allows us to access information infrastructures, which is more than just interception," the Director-General of the Government Communications Security Bureau, Andrew Hampton, said.
> It "also allows us to retrieve digital information directly from where it is stored or processed".
What they need to do is give up. Their surveillance is not justifiable. I hate how normalized their tyrannical behavior is.
Move along citizen.