Category Archives: Christchurch

Housing, inequality, climate: what the Guardian’s New Zealand readers asked Jacinda Ardern

Posted on by

As an election year approaches, several key themes emerged from questions you sent in for the prime minister

As New Zealanders count down to the end of tumultuous year and look ahead to the election in 2020, the Guardian asked readers which questions they would like to pose to Jacinda Ardern.

We will publish the prime minister’s answers on Monday, but here we lay out the topics that people in New Zealand felt were the most pressing.

Continue reading...

New Zealand’s gun buyback scheme suspended after data breach

Posted on by

Police admit that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online

New Zealand’s high profile gun buyback scheme, enacted by the prime minister, Jacinda Ardern, after the Christchurch mosque attacks, has been thrown into disarray after police admitted that at least one person had been able to access other firearm owners’ personal information online.

The error became public on Monday when a gun lobby group said it had spoken to 15 people who were able to access information on a website where firearms owners registered weapons to be relinquished. It included their names, addresses, dates of birth, firearms licence numbers and bank account details, the group said.

Continue reading...

Behrouz Boochani calls Christchurch welcome a ‘reminder of kindness’

Posted on by

Official reception highlights New Zealand’s differences with Australia over immigration

The city of Christchurch has welcomed Behrouz Boochani with a civic reception and a traditional Māori mihi whakatau – a formal welcome – as his presence, and liberty, in New Zealand once again underscores the country’s political differences with Australia over immigration.

Boochani was formally greeted from the plane by the mayor of Christchurch and the city’s Māori leaders, who told him he was welcomed by the mountains, the rivers, and the people of the city.

Continue reading...

After Christchurch, kindness is the only way to live each day

Posted on by

The mosque attacks rocked New Zealand but good deeds and generosity will help keep us together

The day of 15 March 2019 will stay with me forever. I was working in my bedroom, listening to radio and drawing. The on-air chat and music was interrupted as news of a shooting at a mosque in Christchurch began to filter through. How could this possibly be happening in our quiet little island tucked away at the bottom of the world?

I brushed it off as some sort of mistake, until news of a shooting at a second mosque emerged minutes later. While witnesses and locals reported the horror that had just unfolded, I scrolled online looking for some sort of explanation, a way to make sense of it – and found everyone was lost for words as I was.

Continue reading...

Christchurch massacre: defence lawyers drop request to move trial away from city

Posted on by

Trial of man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques set to begin in June next year

The man accused of killing 51 people at two mosques in New Zealand in March has withdrawn an application to have the trial moved away from Christchurch, the city where the attacks occurred.

The decision was announced at the high court in Christchurch, where the accused man, Australian Brenton Tarrant, appeared via a video link from a high-security prison in Auckland.

Continue reading...

Christchurch attack suspect sent ‘call to arms’ letter from cell

Posted on by

New Zealand government admits prisoner’s mail ‘should have been withheld’

The alleged gunman in the Christchurch mosque attacks that killed 51 people has been exchanging letters with white supremacists from his maximum security jail cell at Auckland’s Paremoremo prison, the New Zealand government has confirmed.

A letter from Brenton Tarrant was sent to a supporter in early July and experts say it can be read as a “call to arms” for white supremacists worldwide. The letter was posted to the anonymous message board 4chan, which has become notorious as a place for white supremacists to post their views.

Continue reading...

‘It brings everything back’: Christchurch despairs over white supremacist attacks

Posted on by

Fresh atrocities in El Paso and Norway bring back the pain of New Zealand’s worst mass-shooting

It’s just gone lunch time at al Noor mosque in central Christchurch and a handful of men gather to pray. They bend down on a thick blue carpet, newly installed, and sit up to face walls gleaming with fresh plaster and paint. In the corner, one young man appears to be quietly crying.

“We’ve replaced everything, everything,” says worshipper Murray Stirling, 52, gesturing around the main prayer room, now serene and bathed in winter sunshine. “There’s no physical trace left of what he did to us.”

Continue reading...

New Zealand gun buyback: 10,000 firearms returned after Christchurch attack

Posted on by

Police praise response after thousands of now-banned guns taken out of circulation in less than a month

More than 10,000 firearms have been bought by New Zealand’s government in less than a month as part of its gun buyback scheme following the Christchurch mosque shootings in March.

Following the killing of 51 people in two inner-city Christchurch mosques by an Australian white supremacist, prime minister Jacinda Ardern’s government rushed through legislation to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons and set aside NZ$150m to buy firearms that were now illegal.

Continue reading...

Austrian far-right leader searched on suspicion of forming terrorist group with Christchurch shooter

Posted on by

Investigation widens to include Martin Sellner’s fiancee Brittany Pettibone following her contact with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell

The Austrian identitarian leader, Martin Sellner, has been subjected to further searches by Austrian police in connection with the Christchurch shooter, according to Austrian media reports and videos on Sellner’s own YouTube channel.

The investigation has also reportedly widened to include Sellner’s US-based fiancee, Brittany Pettibone, and her own alleged connections with Australian far-right figure Blair Cottrell.

Continue reading...

Christchurch massacre: Brenton Tarrant pleads not guilty to all charges

Posted on by

Trial to be held in May 2020 for Australian man who faces 51 murder charges, 40 of attempted murder and one terrorism charge

Australian Brenton Tarrant has pleaded not guilty to all charges in relation to the Christchurch mosque shootings in New Zealand.

Tarrant, 28, is facing 51 charges of murder, 40 of attempted murder and one of engaging in a terrorist act. The trial, estimated to take six weeks, will go ahead on 4 May, 2020.

Continue reading...

Leaders and tech firms pledge to tackle extremist violence online

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern and Emmanuel Macron met companies and G7 nations in Paris for Christchurch Call summit

World leaders and heads of global technology companies have pledged at a Paris summit to tackle terrorist and extremist violence online in what they described as an “unprecedented agreement”.

Wednesday’s event, organised two months to the day since the Christchurch massacre in New Zealand, drew up a “plan of action” to be adopted by countries and companies to prevent extreme material going viral on the internet.

Continue reading...

Christchurch Call: details emerge of Ardern’s plan to tackle online extremism

Posted on by

New Zealand PM will reportedly urge nations to enforce laws banning extremist material and set rules for reporting on terrorism

Details have emerged of a plan by New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern and French president Emmanuel Macron to eliminate terrorist and violent content online.

Ardern and Macron will meet in Paris this week on the sidelines of a meeting of digital ministers from the Group of 7 nations to discuss the plan – named the “Christchurch Call” – and urge other leaders to sign up.

Continue reading...

Christchurch trial: New Zealand media agree to curb white supremacy coverage

Posted on by

Reporting guidelines devised and signed by five major news organisations

New Zealand media organisations have taken the unprecedented step of agreeing to censor their reporting of the trial of the man accused of the Christchurch mosque massacre in an attempt to contain the dissemination of his white supremacist beliefs.

On 15 March a shooter killed 50 people in two Christchurch mosques, the largest mass shooting in New Zealand’s modern history.

Continue reading...

Prince William receives traditional Māori greeting in New Zealand

Posted on by

Duke of Cambridge and Jacinda Ardern press noses as part of hongi during visit to honour those affected by the Christchurch attacks

Prince William has joined Jacinda Ardern at Anzac commemorations in New Zealand in the wake of the Christchurch mosque attacks.

The pair shared an intimate hongi [Māori nose press] and espoused the values of freedom, democracy, and peace where they attended a service in Auckland before travelling to Christchurch to meet with survivors.

Continue reading...

Facebook are ‘morally bankrupt liars’ says New Zealand’s privacy commissioner

Posted on by

John Edwards calls out social media giant after Christchurch attack for refusing to accept responsibility for harm

New Zealand’s privacy commissioner has lashed out at social media giant Facebook in the wake of the Christchurch attacks, calling the company “morally bankrupt pathological liars”.

The commissioner used his personal Twitter page to lambast the social network, which has also drawn the ire of prime minister Jacinda Ardern for hosting a livestream of the attacks that left 50 dead, which was then copied and shared all over the internet.

Continue reading...

Jacinda Ardern: ‘Very little of what I have done has been deliberate. It’s intuitive’

Posted on by

In the wake of New Zealand’s worst terror attack, the prime minister talks frankly about the aftermath, global scrutiny and how a nation heals

“I’ll show you something,” says Jacinda Ardern. We are sitting on sofas in her office on the ninth floor of the Beehive, the circular building that houses the New Zealand government in Wellington. It is just 10 days since a terrorist attack in Christchurch took the lives of 50 people at prayer. Outside, the flags are at half-mast. Two police officers stand by the glass doors, cradling semi-automatic weapons. Up on the ninth floor, the early morning sun scythes in through panoramic windows, the harbour just visible in the distance. In the reception area, a staffer’s preschooler son buzzes back and forth on a bike.

I have been asking Ardern about her immediate response to the attack, which from the outset put a clear emphasis on inclusivity and solidarity. Succinctly, steelily, the prime minister framed what had happened in her own terms. It felt very deliberate: was it?

Continue reading...

Christchurch memorial: standing ovation for Ardern at New Zealand service

Posted on by

Jacinda Ardern and Scott Morrison among estimated 20,000 attending national remembrance service near site of attacks

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern was greeted with a standing ovation as she took the stage to address a crowd of thousands gathered at Hagley Park for a nationwide remembrance service in honour of 50 people killed in the country’s worst terrorist attack.

Related: With respect: how Jacinda Ardern showed the world what a leader should be

Continue reading...

Moderate media, a compassionate leader: how New Zealand reacted to a tragedy | Calla Wahlquist

Posted on by

Is New Zealand’s civilised response to the Christchurch massacre just down to good stewardship, or is there something else going on?

To the rest of the world, New Zealand’s reaction to the Christchurch massacre has been extraordinary. The killing of 50 people at Friday prayers in two mosques by a white, right-wing Australian has united, rather than divided, this small country and galvanised a parliament that has been prevaricating on gun reform for 30 years into action.

Much of that response has been down to the leadership of Jacinda Ardern. But even there, the public reception has been remarkable.

Continue reading...

New Zealand shooting: Jacinda Ardern announces royal commission into attack

Posted on by

Prime minister says the country’s highest form of investigation is appropriate for ‘matters of the gravest public importance’

New Zealand’s prime minister has announced a top-level inquiry into the circumstances surrounding the massacre of 50 people in two Christchurch mosques.

Jacinda Ardern said the country’s highest form of investigation, a royal commission of inquiry, was appropriate for “matters of the gravest public importance”.

Continue reading...

Censor bans ‘manifesto’ of Christchurch mosque shooter

Posted on by

David Shanks says document ‘deliberately constructed to inspire murder and terrorism’, as more than 1,000 New Zealanders register to hand in guns

New Zealand’s chief censor has banned a document shared by the man allegedly responsible for killing 50 people in two Christchurch mosques.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 people so far have opted to hand in their weapons following a ban on assault rifles and military-style semi-automatics (MSSAs).

Continue reading...