The Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terror Attack in Christchurch on March 15 has delivered a comprehensive report that will form the basis of a significant work programme to make New Zealand a safer and ultimately, I hope, a more cohesive country.

When we set up the inquiry, I said I wanted no stone left unturned to find out how the March 15 attack happened, what could have been done to stop it and how we can keep New Zealanders safe.

On the matters of how the attack occurred and what could have been done to stop it the Commission found no failures within any Government agencies that would have allowed the terrorists planning and preparation to be detected. But they did identify many lessons to be learnt and significant areas needing change.

The first are the failings within the firearms licensing regime. Commissioner Coster will speak to these directly at the conclusion of my comments.

The second area relates to our security and intelligence agencies.

For many years, the Muslim community has raised concerns over the disproportionate scrutiny by security and intelligence agencies. As one member of the community put it to me recently, they could only assume that same level of scrutiny was being applied to those who may have posed a threat to their security.

The fact that the first thing we moved on in the aftermath of March 15 was our gun laws, speaks to how important we believed change in this area was.

Muslim New Zealanders should be safe. Anyone who calls New Zealand home, regardless of race, religion, sex, or sexual orientation should be safe.

So, to ensure New Zealanders are safer the Government has agreed in principle with all 44 recommendations contained in the report.

In line with recommendation 30 of the report the Government will establish a Ministry for Ethnic Communities. The elevation of what was formally the Office for Ethnic Communities has been a longstanding ambition of the diverse range of ethnic communities we have in New Zealand.

Minister Radhakrishnan will as both the Minister for Inclusion, Diversity and Ethnic Communities, as well as an Associate Social Development Minister, lead the work on social cohesion. I will play a role in supporting her in that work. The report makes clear the need for leadership in this area, it is a call we all accept.

I want to come now to an area that has needed reform since well before the terrorist attack on March 15. There are many groups of people in New Zealand who do not feel safe due to threats and victimisation that most New Zealanders do not ever encounter.

I think most of us would find hate fuelled behaviour unacceptable, and totally against who we are, and what we aspire to be as a nation.

Finally, I want to thank the Royal Commission for its thorough work. It has been a massive undertaking and the result will help strengthen New Zealand’s Counter-Terrorism system as well as enhance cohesion across our communities. But I want to leave my final words for the Muslim community. In the wake of such pain, I know that has been one of your goals. Now it is up to all of us to make that a reality. -TIN Bureau