The research centre was set up in the wake of the 15 March terror attacks, but has now been told it will no longer be funded. Photo: RNZ / Nathan Mckinnon
The government has pulled funding from the country's flagship research centre into violent extremism.
Set up as a response to the royal commission on the 2019 Christchurch mosque attacks, its short-lived existence is being called a "broken promise" and a threat to minorities.
He Whenua Taurikura research centre in Wellington received a letter from the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC) on Friday, saying funding would end in December. It has been run under a trust since 2022.
"Members of the trust are disappointed with the sudden change in direction by government, done in the name of cost savings," a trust spokesperson told RNZ.
"The $2m the government saves by cutting this research will almost certainly increase the risk of significant loss of innocent life in vulnerable communities at the hands of extremists."
The coalition government had already cut the centre's funding by two thirds, from $1.3m down to $500,000 in Budget 2024.
A Muslim community spokesperson said while Australia, the UK and Asian countries were spending millions on extremist research specific to their nations, New Zealand would be left with nothing.
"It is absolutely a broken promise by Christopher Luxon," said Abdur Razzaq.
Luxon's government and Judith Collins - the minister responsible for the mosque inquiry response - had promised new approaches and business-as-usual funding for responses, but Razzaq said: "Where is the business-as-usual funding for this centre?"
Collins declined to answer RNZ's questions, including whether New Zealand risked losing insights into terrorism and extremism, and about who might fill the gap left behind.
"Your questions are best addressed to DPMC," her office said.
A trickle of funding might see the centre last until the middle of next year.
A gap in research
A trust spokesperson said its demise would "absolutely" leave a gap of research into white extremism.
"We will go back to the same research environment we had prior to March 15, when all the focus has been on Muslims, and what do you know? They are not the problem."
The message was that "the affected communities are lower in priority than the existing government's security structures".
The centre was set up with minority community members making up its trust board, in response to the royal commission's call for secure government funding of independent and New Zealand-specific research on the causes of violent extremism.
When RNZ reported the reduction in funding in June, several critics of the centre disparaged its research as not focused enough on extremism, claiming it lacked researchers experienced in the field.
But Te Herenga Waka-Victoria University of Wellington - which provided offices and administration services for the centre - said in a statement: "Through their excellent research, the centre has amplified the voices of communities and groups that have experienced violence, bigotry and harm."
The trust said it had only just completed a setting-up phase.
"Halting this research is a retrograde step, and by reducing the voice of the affected communities, will remove potential constraints to future attacks," it said in a statement.
"Without research into what 'he whenua taurikura', a peaceful land could look like, we are doomed to repeat the conflict-ridden history that results from the security-led paradigm of the past."
Under the $500,000 funding, the trust board had proposed the centre administer a research and scholarship programme.
But DPMC concluded this was "not the most effective and efficient use" of the limited public funding to get quality research from across the country.
"Following consideration of options, including those proposed by the board, DPMC has decided to cease funding... on 31 December," it told the trust on Friday.
Razzaq said the centre was special because it had a direct feed into the machinery of government at the DPMC, unlike other university-led national security study groups.
"Let's not forget ... one of the things that led to March 15 was the government reducing the budget on arms licensing," he said, adding this short-sighted cost saving ended up costing half a billion dollars in the fallout from the terror attacks that killed 51 people.
Earlier, the government dumped two of the royal commission's recommendations for an over-arching intelligence and security agency, and for a new public reporting system on extremism, partly for financial reasons.
RNZ reported in November that the reporting system was in limbo, while the government maintained for months that the super-agency might be set up.
The dumping of a public reporting system for people to alert authorities to disturbing behaviour that might not be criminal was announced in early August.
It was due in part to "current fiscal pressures".
It was also decided that "there are sufficient existing threat reporting channels for the public to report concerning behaviours and incidents," police said in notes for Police Minister Mark Mitchell, released to RNZ under the Official Information Act.
The 111 and 105 emergency call systems would be improved, and police had set up a fixated threat assessment centre (FTAC), and a national security person of interest (POI) framework, the notes on 1 August said.
Razzaq said those moves represented the "securitisation" of the threat.
The police spent at least $1.5m on initial work on a business case for the public reporting system.
The unspent part of the $13.5m tagged for it was returned to the Crown.
Ministers met for 30 minutes in early May to talk about dropping not just the system, but all eight of the 44 recommendations of the royal commission not yet implemented in full or in part.
Police told government officials on 17 June that they would "continue to engage and partner with communities to best meet their needs and provide community assurance through visible policing to help people feel safe. This will also support counter-terrorism efforts".
But police have since then been lessening their response to lower-priority 111 and 105 calls.
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