Foreword

Assalaam alaikum and tēnā koutou

The Government established this Royal Commission to investigate the terrorist attack at the Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019. The purpose has been to determine what had happened, and why, and what should be done to reduce the risk of future attacks.

At the heart of our inquiry were those that lost their lives, the whānau of the 51 shuhada and the survivors and witnesses of the 15 March 2019 terrorist attack and their whānau. Many affected whānau, survivors and witnesses raised issues with us relating to incidents they had suffered from fellow New Zealanders involving hate crime and hate speech. We also heard from many submitters and in our engagement with communities and interest groups about how some New Zealanders are regularly subject to hate speech (both online and offline) and hate crime.

We see hate speech and hate crime as being on the same spectrum of harmful behaviours as terrorism (see Part 2, chapter 5 of our report). For this reason, we decided to look at how these behaviours are dealt with under our current laws and associated New Zealand Police practice. Part 9, chapter 4, of our report explains why we consider that aspects of New Zealand’s legal framework and New Zealand Police practice should be improved. 

This supplementary document covers much the same ground as that chapter but in greater detail.