Collins causes ‘shell-shock’ in small Christchurch hall

Analysis: It was a circular moment.
On Friday morning, media were invited to an announcement by the office of National Party Minister Judith Collins about the Government’s response to the Terror Attack Royal Commission recommendations.
That same venue, the central Christchurch justice buildings, was where media pored over the Royal Commission’s report when it was released in December 2020.
While details of Collins’ announcement didn’t arrive via email until about 45 minutes before she spoke, the Government had already signalled its approach.
A Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet briefing to Collins last December presented options for integrating the response into “business-as-usual activities”.
In February, as the fifth anniversary of the terror attack approached, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said: “You actually have to close it out, and you actually have to get a resolution for people.”
Later that month, Collins wrote to Kāpuia, the official advisory body on the Royal Commission’s recommendations, to say the response “must enter its next phase”.
Collins’ visit to Christchurch was not going to be good news for the Muslim community – who lost 51 shuhada (martyrs) in March 2019, with many more injured and traumatised, after an Australian terrorist with semi-automatic weapons attacked two city mosques.
On Friday morning, the minister met members of the Muslim community at a small hall in the southern suburb of St Martins, far from the city’s mosques.
She told invited guests, about 20 people, the coordinated, cross-agency response to the Royal Commission recommendations had ended. Eight of the 44 recommendations had been dropped, while the balance were either completed or would be absorbed into “ongoing work programmes”.
One person who attended the meeting told Newsroom later Collins delivered written remarks, took a few questions, and left. While 30 minutes had been set aside for the meeting, it took about half that.
People were “shell-shocked” at her quick departure, one attendee said. Another said several women who lost their husbands in the attack felt the minister’s conduct was disrespectful.
“Judith Collins was quite dismissive this morning,” the second attendee said.
Later, at the justice buildings, Newsroom asked Collins about the Muslim community’s reaction in the meeting.
“They simply asked about the eight recommendations that we weren’t progressing, and I ran through all of those.
“We found that because the work has been ongoing for the last five years, between the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, but also government agencies and ministers, both past and present, there did not seem to be any surprise. We’ve signalled this for quite some time.”
Another journalist put to Collins that members of the Muslim community didn’t feel the Government was listening – they felt it wanted to draw a line under the response and move on.
Collins said there had been “a tremendous amount of outreach from both the previous government and our own, and agencies” over the past five-and-a-quarter years. Agencies will continue their work, particularly for individuals.
Isn’t a natural consequence of the wind-down, Newsroom asked, that survivors would get less, and slower, help from agencies?
Often, Collins remarked, victims of terrible crimes never recover from what happened to them. “There is no way to actually bring something to an end for people because it’s simply they have to live with it every day.”
There had been significant government investment, about $39 million, or maybe more, into the response, she said. “We must have learnt an awful lot from it, which we have, and the agencies have taken it all on board. I think, too, it’s a natural conclusion time for the coordinated response.”
Masjid An-Nur, also known as the Al Noor Mosque, sits about two kilometres from the justice buildings, past the hospital and across Hagley Park. About an hour after Collins’ press conference concluded, the call to prayer, adhan, sounded.
It was packed. There were as many people in the mosque’s front row as there were at Collins’ meeting with Muslim community members hours earlier.
Imam Gamal Fouda, who was in the mosque on March 15, 2019, and is still getting counselling for the trauma caused on that day, gave the khutbah, or sermon.
It focused on the hijrah, the Prophet Muhammad’s migration from Mecca to Medina to escape persecution. Muhammad negotiated a charter with local clans, Fouda said.
“That charter calls for mutual assistance among the various communities, particularly in times of hardship. This includes support of the poor, widows and orphans.”
A system of brotherhood was initiated in Medina, to create a sense of unity and mutual support. Fouda said today’s Muslims can follow that example today, by pairing newcomers with mentors, and supporting others through food banks, housing assistance, and support networks.
“We can inspire our future generations and other communities to do the same.”
After the Friday prayer, or Jum’ah, Fouda confirmed to Newsroom he hadn’t been invited to the Collins meeting – “maybe I missed the invitation?”
(Collins’ office responds: “He was, via email to the mosque. DPMC followed up with a phone call to the Al Noor treasurer to confirm they had received the invite and to make sure it was pushed out to the community. The treasurer attended, as did the President of the Muslim Association of Canterbury.”)
Leading up to the March 15 anniversary, Fouda raised concerns, at a private meeting with the Prime Minister, about changes to firearms law.
“For this new Government, 15th of March never happened. They turned their back to us.”
The community didn’t want the wind-down to happen, Fouda said. “We wanted our Government to actually work with us and to look at the needs of the shattered and broken Muslim community. Still we are in a recovery stage.”
Collins was asked at the press conference if financial considerations factored into ministers’ decisions to wind-down the response. “Absolutely not,” she said.
(It had previously, though. When Collins scrapped work being undertaken by Kāpuia, she told chair Arihia Bennett: “We must consider the current fiscal environment.”)
Fouda disagreed – for this Government, “everything is about money”.
“We don’t want tax cuts,” he said. “The community is more precious than money.”
Fouda thought the Government’s new chapter – the end of the coordinated response – would lead to an atmosphere similar to that as before the terror attack, when the Muslim community’s concerns weren’t taken seriously, and security services thought terror threats were more likely to emanate from within their community.
(That view isn’t universal. A senior member of the mosque told Newsroom the community had a much better relationship with police, and the Security Intelligence Service.)
“So I think, now, everything is going back to the normal situation before 15th of March, where our community will be marginalised, and we’ll be vulnerable to such things,” Fouda says.
Is New Zealand safer now? Fouda says he hopes such an attack will never happen again but many think it will.
“People, they choose their spots in the mosque; where to sit. They still have fear that this is going to happen.”

Back to the Collins press conference.
The recommendations not being progressed – including hate speech laws (explicitly stated in National’s coalition agreement with New Zealand First), and mandatory reporting of firearms injuries by medical professionals – weren’t progressed by the previous government either, she pointed out.
Asked about the future of firearms laws and whether the Ministry of Ethnic Communities would be retained, Collins said detailed questions about firearms laws should go to Act’s Nicole McKee, the Associate Minister of Justice.
Collins didn’t seem entirely across her brief. Mandatory reporting of firearms injuries to police by health professionals wouldn’t be pursued, she said, because of a “very real risk” it would deter people from seeking medical help.
But that policy would have led police to the terrorist before the attack, a journalist pointed out – “has that been considered in making that decision?”
Collins started: “No, mandatory reporting of firearm injuries would not have…” The journalist interrupted, stating, correctly, the terrorist had been injured by a firearm before the attack.
(The Australian citizen was treated in Dunedin Hospital in 2018 after an accident while cleaning his rifle.)
Collins: “Oh, right, OK.” The point, though, she said, was medical staff reporting on patients clashed with confidentiality issues and professional standards.
From August 30, Collins will officially pass the baton for the Government’s response to the Royal Commission report to her National Party colleague Matt Doocey, the Waimakariri MP. “He has actually been undertaking that role in many ways, since he met with the community in March.”
In deciding which recommendations to pursue, Collins assured: “At the heart of every decision has been the victims, the families and the communities affected.”
But, Newsroom asked, how many of the community had she met with since her last Christchurch visit? During her last visit to the city, in May, Collins met with “everyone who arrived”.  “But, of course, the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has been also working with families.”
A long-standing member at An-Nur compared the Government’s approach to the Royal Commission recommendations to the United States when bogged down in the Vietnam War: “Declare victory and leave!”
On Thursday, before Collins’ press conference had been called, Newsroom met Farid Ahmed, whose wife, Husna, was shot and killed in the terror attack.
Ahmed said he had been advocating for March 15 to become a national day of compassion, asking the Government to make it a day for all New Zealanders, with awards for youth, and a commemoration organised by the Government. He would also like a compassion centre to be built in Christchurch.
The terror attack brought the country together, he said, and a national day would reignite that feeling. “The more we understand one another, the more we can look after each other.”
While some of the terror response had been focused on law changes, Ahmed said: “Legislation will not make a peaceful society; we need to work on hearts.”
On Friday, Newsroom asked Collins if she would be pushing for March 15 commemorations to be held outside Christchurch. Many communities already commemorate the day, she said – “I’m not going to be pushing for anything”.
Twice, Newsroom asked if the Government had any proactive policies to bring the nation together, and promote social cohesion.
Collins, who is also the Minister Responsible for the Security Intelligence Service, mentioned she’d just attended a counter-terrorism summit in Indonesia. “The need for us to continuously look to see how we can work with communities, so that we become aware of potential problems, is very important.”
The second time, Collins said it was important to have a minister as the “point person” for the affected community. “But,” she added, “it is really important that we open up and continue that relationship between our security agencies and families who are both affected or who are concerned about other people that they know.”
After the media conference ended, one journalist quipped: “I think the answer was no.”
As the TV gear was being packed up, another journalist suggested the Government should get credit for coming to Christchurch – after all, it could have made the announcement in Wellington.
But is there a discount for the fact ministers made the announcement on a Friday, the sacred day of worship for Muslims, and didn’t step foot in a mosque?
Later, at An-Nur, Fouda addressed the faithful first in Arabic, and then switched to English. “Don’t be sad,” he said. “Allah is with us.”