East and Central had the highest number of incidents reported, with 15 each. Photo: Duoya Lu
There were 82 hate incidents across Auckland's buses, trains and transport hubs between July 2023 and July 2024 where racial discrimination played a part, new police data reveals.
East and Central had the highest number of incidents reported, with 15 each.
Hate crimes were not standalone offences in New Zealand, but could be considered as an aggravating factor during sentencing.
Asian New Zealanders have been victims in a number of incidents on buses in recent months, including a teenager who was left with facial injuries after being attacked with a metal rod in East Auckland.
In July, an Asian woman had to get off an East Auckland bus after being verbally abused by another passenger.
Earlier this month, Mount Roskill based bus driver Rajnish Trehan was punched in the face by a passenger who refused to pay.
Meanwhile, police have refused to provide a month-by-month breakdown of the data, citing privacy concerns.
"Previous internal and external advice has indicated that a low count of occurrences makes it possible for the individuals captured by those occurrences to be identified. This would breach the privacy of any victims and/or offenders," a spokesperson said in a statement.
"In this case if we were to provide a month-by-month breakdown there are multiple months that include a single occurrence. The data would therefore reveal the approximate date, location, scene type and potential hate-motivation for an individual occurrence.
"Together this information could be used to identify victims and/or offenders."
Auckland City alone had 3412 hate-motivated incidents over the past four years, while Counties Manukau reported 2540. Over the great Auckland area - Auckland City, Counties Manukau and Waitemata - there were 8059.
Police data revealed to RNZ through an earlier Official Information Act request showed 20,194 occurrences where incidents had been flagged for hate, from 2020 to June of this year.