A major investigation into whether the Christchurch mosque attacks could have been prevented will be given months longer to produce its final report, New Zealand’s government has said.
Tracey Martin, the internal affairs minister, said on Wednesday the inquiry would now report back on 30 April 2020 instead of 10 December, after an extension was requested by those running it and the Muslim community also raised concerns about its eight-month timeframe.
The investigation has been plagued by criticism that it would be rushed to conclusions and did not have time to properly consult Muslims and survivors of the shootings.
There had been “significant public interest” in the inquiry, said Martin in a statement – citing more than 1,100 public submissions it had received to date.
“The public, through the royal commission, deserves to know what the relevant state sector agencies knew about the individual’s activities before the attack, what, if anything, they did with that information, what measures agencies could have taken to prevent the attack, and what measures agencies should take to prevent such attacks in the future,” she said.
The commission will also receive an extra NZ$3m to conduct the longer inquiry.
Fifty-one Muslims were killed and dozens more wounded in the attacks on two mosques during Friday prayers in the South Island city on 15 March. An Australian man has pleaded not guilty to charges of terrorism, murder and attempted murder, and will stand trial in June next year.
When Jacinda Ardern, New Zealand’s prime minister, announced the royal commission in March, she promised answers by the end of the year about whether the attacks could have been prevented. The commission would also investigate whether disproportionate attention was paid to Muslim communities by New Zealand’s security services – at the expense of an examination of white supremacist threats.
The suspect, an Australian who had earlier moved to New Zealand, appeared to have posted footage of the attack and a manifesto online, in which he claimed he was a white supremacist. He had also obtained a New Zealand gun licence and a cache of weapons.
Muslim groups in New Zealand have been uneasy about the inquiry from the start, saying they were not consulted properly about its scope and were worried that too much of it would happen behind closed doors. They have said they were included in the process too late to have a say in how the inquiry – which is independent of government – would question government agencies about their actions.
