Royal Commission needed into Christchurch attacks

Opposition Leader Simon Bridges says a Royal Commission of Inquiry is needed into our Security and Intelligence Agencies following the Christchurch terror attacks and our security legislation needs to be revisited with some urgency to ensure New Zealanders are kept safe.

“A Royal Commission is the only suitable level of inquiry to ensure this is investigated thoroughly and independently.

“We need to understand whether this could have been prevented. It will need to ask hard questions about whether our security and intelligence agencies had their focus in the right places.

“In 2013 the Government of the day made the decision to abandon Project Speargun which would have scanned internet traffic coming into New Zealand and given an extended degree of protection to all New Zealanders. Similar systems are used in other jurisdictions.

“We currently have Cortex as part of our cyber-security systems, which is much narrower and designed to protect institutions. It’s never easy to balance the rights of privacy against security but where we draw the line must now be reconsidered.

“However, an inquiry cannot be an excuse by the Government not to answer questions in the meantime. Our security risk has now changed and New Zealanders need to be kept safe. The Royal Commission should look at the past, and Parliament should get on with actions for the future.”

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