On 15 March 50 people died in a terrorist shooting at two mosques.
A police officers guard the area close to the Masjid al Noor mosque after the terror attack. Photo: AFP or licensors
Read a timeline of how the day unfolded, learn about the victims and some of the heroic actions of people that day.
Read a timeline of the actions by New Zealand's security services, government and the country's Muslim community in the years leading up to the Christchurch mosque attacks.
Before the Christchurch mosque attacks - a timeline
- 2002 - New Zealand enacts Terrorism Suppression Act. As of 2019, no one has ever been charged under Act
- 2009-2019 - Not one specific mention in this period of the threat from white supremacists or right-wing nationalism in SIS or GCSB public documents
- 2010-2017 - Figures from this period show 92 far-right attacks compared with 38 by jihadists* in US
- July 2011 - 77 people killed in Norway by white supremacist shooter
- 2012 on - Series of reviews of NZ security agencies after scandals including the Kim Dotcom spying
- 2013 - National-led government abandons intrusive internet surveillance
- 2013 on - Flood of refugees into Europe begins
- 2014 - Suite of changes to national security set up including three new entities - a Strategic Risk and Resilience Panel, Security and Intelligence Board and Hazard Risk Board
- 2015-2018 - Series of budget boosts for SIS and GCSB, including (in 2016) of $178m over 4 years
- 2015 - Corrections Department sets up Countering Violent Extremism working group as part of government's counter-terrorism strategy
- June 2015 - Nine killed by white supremacist at African-American church in South Carolina, United States **
- December 2015 - New Zealand Muslims hold first community meetings to discuss counter-terrorism
- June 2016 - Two men sentenced in Auckland over Islamic State material
- October 2016 - Islamic Women's Council raises fears of far-right with SIS
- 2017-18 - Security agencies set up new National Risk Unit and new National Security Workforce team, plus get a new specialist coordinator for counter-terrorism
- 2017 - Research finds NZ Muslims believe government surveillance is excessive
- 2017 to early 2018 - Muslim community in numerous meetings with government seeking but failing to get national wellbeing strategy
- January 2017 - Six killed at mosque in Quebec, Canada
- September 2017 - New Zealand's new Intelligence and Security Act 2017 comes into force
- June 2018 - SIS begins to increase its efforts to assess far-right threat
- November 2018 - Eleven killed by far right shooter in Pittsburgh, US
- March 2019 - SIS and GCSB confirm they had no intelligence about the Christchurch terror accused
* Global Terrorism Database by the Washington Post
** This list of far-right attacks is far from exhaustive