3. Question No. 3—Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch MosquesSARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam) to the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch MosquesQuestion No. 3—Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques3. SARAH PALLETT (Labour—Ilam) to the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques: What progress has been made on the Government's response to the report of the royal commission of inquiry into the 2019 Christchurch mosques attack? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN (Minister for the Community and Voluntary Sector) on behalf of the Lead Coordination Minister for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques: Can I begin by acknowledging the 51 shuhada their whānau and everyone directly impacted by the horrific events of March 15th 2019. The events left a lasting impact on our nation and I know that our ethnic and faith communities want to see progress made to ensure that New Zealand becomes a safer more cohesive country. That's why our Government accepted in principle all 44 recommendations from the royal commission of inquiry's report. We have made and continue to make steady progress across various areas including improving social cohesion on education and inclusion work towards reducing hate-motivated crime and racism; strengthening firearms laws; and countering terrorism and violent extremism. There is also current focus on improving our national security system to ensure that the events of four years ago are never repeated. The country has come a long way but there is still more work to be done. Can I also acknowledge Kāpuia and everyone else across the public private and community sectors who are working hard to make New Zealand a better place. Sarah Pallett: What progress has been made to strengthen social cohesion in New Zealand? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Last year I launched Te Korowai Whetū Social Cohesion which gives a shared understanding of what social cohesion in New Zealand looks like. This includes resources that ensure the Government's work aligns with what we know strengthens cohesion resources to guide collective action across various sectors to achieve cohesion and a measurement framework that will help us to monitor progress. We've also launched a fund to support tangible community-led initiatives that promote cohesion. This is work that responds directly to recommendations made by the royal commission and also wishes from the affected communities. Sarah Pallett: What progress has been made to ensure ethnic and faith-based communities are better supported? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: This Government has taken a number of steps towards improving supports for our ethnic and faith-based communities. This includes the Safer Communities Fund which provides $3.3 million in funding over three years for communities at risk from hate crimes and terrorism to be able to upgrade and implement security arrangements to help reduce the threats and impact of future crimes and acts of terrorism against their communities. We've also enhanced the Kaiwhakaoranga Specialist Case Management Service which has brought in expertise from across Government agencies to be able to ensure that members of the affected communities are able to access the supports that they need. We've also established the Collective Impact Board to ensure that we continue to make improvements to that case management service. Sarah Pallett: What progress has been made in regards to countering terrorism and violent extremism? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Progress in this area has been focused on work to improve the counter-terrorism effort through legislative change; better public engagement strategy and research; and specific initiatives as well. To date work has included the launch of the He Whenua Taurikura New Zealand's National Centre of Research Excellence for Preventing and Countering Violent Extremism—that was in June 2022—to ensure that we continue to build knowledge that is New Zealand - centric about extremist threats within Aotearoa New Zealand; also the annual hui that brings together civil society Government academics and communities to collectively ensure that we create a safer Aotearoa. One initiative that I will mention is He Aranga Ake. It is a multi-agency disengagement framework intended to support individuals who may pose a violent extremist or terrorist threat of harm to a community or to themselves due to identifying with specific ideologies. Finally there's also been the awarding of 11 scholarships for the start of the 2022 academic year for Master's research on counter-terrorism and countering violent extremism. This is work that the Government prioritises and takes seriously and work will continue to progress. Golriz Ghahraman: Al salam alaikum. In light of the findings of the royal commission of inquiry that our current hate speech and hate crime laws did not allow religious minorities or most marginalised groups to even report rising threats or extremism such that police and security institutions were not able to predict or respond to the terror threat how does his Government justify leaving our communities still unprotected without implementing the law reform recommendations of the royal commission report? Hon PRIYANCA RADHAKRISHNAN: Two answers to that. With regard to the legislative component of that this is work that is complex and that's why work was—the Law Commission is undertaking a fulsome review into that to make sure that we get it right. Secondly on reporting hate crime there has been work led by the police on Te Raranga to ensure that we can report hate crime in a way that is better and I understand that that is fully operational.