Some survivors of the mosque massacre in Christchurch are calling for Australia to pay for the lifetime prison sentence of the gunman, who killed 51 worshippers last year.
Last week Justice Cameron Mander sentenced Brenton Tarrant, who is an Australian citizen, to life in prison without parole for the murders of 51 people at two inner-city Christchurch mosques in March of 2019.
It is the first time anyone in New Zealand has been sentenced to life without parole. The Australian gunman is expected to be held in solitary confinement in the maximum-security Paremoremo prison at a cost estimated to be in the tens of millions of dollars over the course of his lifetime. Tarrant is 29 years old.
Prime minister Jacinda Ardern has said she would speak to Christchurch families after a number said Australia should foot the bill for his imprisonment. The cost of Tarrant’s incarceration is around NZ$5,000 (A$4,600) a day, according to the prime minister.
Tarrant grew up in the New South Wales town of Grafton and moved to New Zealand in late 2017, when he began planning his terrorist attack on two mosques, and frequenting local gun clubs.
After he was sentenced, Winston Peters, the deputy prime minister, said he should be sent back to Australia. “Now is the time for Australia’s minister of home affairs, Peter Dutton, to receive and carry out the terrorist’s sentence in Australia,” he said.
“The Islamic community and all of New Zealand has already suffered enough without having to pay astronomical prison costs to keep him safe in our prison system.”
However, John Milne whose 14-year-old son Sayyad Milne was killed in the attack, told RNZ he wanted Tarrant to serve out his sentence in New Zealand. “We can’t let him go [be deported], we’ve lost control of what happens to him,” said Milne.
“I think Australia needs to pay the total cost for what we’ve spent already, they need to pay that plus ongoing. They need to cough up big time. There’s a big bill out there for this now, he’s Australian, not a Kiwi, we shouldn’t have to pay for any of it.”
Survivor Abdul Aziz chased the gunman from Lindwood mosque. He thinks the millions being spent on Tarrant’s incarceration could be redirected if Australia picked up the tab.
“That money you know we can do a lot better things than spending it on that coward,” Aziz said.
Opposition Leader Judith Collins disagrees with the terrorist being deported, because it could result in more New Zealanders being deported from Australian jails, a long-term issue that has placed considerable strain on the Trans-Tasman relationship.
Feroze Ditta, the general secretary of the Muslim Association of Canterbury, said it was important the gunman remained in New Zealand to serve his sentence. “He committed the crime in New Zealand. He got tried by the New Zealand courts, is [serving a] sentence in a New Zealand prison. That’s where he should remain.”
The debate follows a move on Tuesday by the New Zealand government to designate Tarrant “a terrorist entity”. The decision freezes his assets and makes it a criminal offence to support his activities.
“Designating the offender is an important demonstration of New Zealand‘s condemnation of terrorism and violent extremism in all forms,” Ardern said in a statement. “This designation ensures the offender cannot be involved in the financing of terrorism in the future.”
Ardern and the Department of Corrections have been contacted for comment.
