Judith Collins was appointed as Minister Responsible for the Government's Response to the Royal Commission's Report into the Terrorist Attack on the Christchurch Mosques in a minor reallocation of portfolios last month. Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Minister Judith Collins is going through the recommendations from the inquiry into the Christchurch mosque attacks with the aim of closing the matter out, the prime minister says.
He says the government is aiming to have "hard completion" on all 44 recommendations - one way or another - and plans to discuss ways to resolve them, including on creating an umbrella national security agency, within months.
Collins is the Minister Responsible for the GCSB and NZSIS intelligence agencies, and for the response to the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch masjidain on 15 March 2019.
Speaking to media after Cabinet met on Wednesday, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said she had been speaking to members of the Muslim community in Christchurch and around New Zealand.
"Yeah, she has been, and I have been over the last 12 months as well and will continue to do so," he said.
He said she would continue to do so, specifically while looking into the recommendations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry.
"We're actually going through all of the recommendations, because personally I feel like we need to bring resolution to that," he said.
"We're coming up to the five-year anniversary of that royal commission of inquiry report and those actions and those recommendations. We have been very supportive of that direction of travel, but I'm also very conscious ... you actually have to close it out, and you actually have to get a resolution for people.
"We are going through all 43, 44 recommendations now, making sure that we can get to a hard completion on each of them, one way or another."
He denied it was a matter of simply ending work on recommendations that were taking too long, but rather that the government intended to finalise its response to the recommendation.
"The environment may have changed a little bit, and there might be better or different ways of achieving that objective ... I want the minister to be able to go through those, give them really considered thought, and we'll discuss them in the coming months."