An interfaith advocate is asking for an apology from officials as the hui into the Christchurch mosque shootings continues.
The Royal Commission of Inquiry's 800 page report into the response to the Christchurch terror attack. Photo: RNZ / Sam Rillstone
The call was made at the first all-faith and all-ethnic hui of the 28 nationwide hui, in Wellington on Monday.
Religious Leaders Communities Forum convenor Joan Buchanan said she did not get an answer at the hui, even though the Royal Commission had exposed many obvious failings.
"If we haven't heard an apology from the Office of Ethnic Communities, and not an apology from the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet... then how do we know, moving forward, that we can work together, if we haven't even heard that they acknowledge that there was failings?"
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern, Police and Security Intelligence Service have apologised. The SIS is part of a national security framework governed by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (DPMC).
Buchanan was told officials would get back to her, but not when, she said.
A similar response met her and others' calls at the hui for an independent assessment of the quality of the community engagement around the government's response to the commission's 44 recommendations for sweeping improvements in security, counterterrorism and social cohesion efforts.
"Because in this quagmire that we end up in, they say they do great community engagement - we say they don't, they say they do," Buchanan said.
"We just want to have a fact check on whether or not they have reached those standards."
The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet refused to answer RNZ's questions as to whether it would apologise, or get an independent assessment done.
"Anyone at the hui who has outstanding questions should feel free to contact us directly," a spokesperson said.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern speaks after the release of the final report by the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch mosques on 15 March 2019. Photo: RNZ / Sam Rillstone
The hui were originally scheduled for December - and three did take place in Christchurch that month.
However, the Muslim community pushed back against this, arguing this would give them little time to digest the 800-page commission report.
The planning and organisation showed best-practice standards for consulting the public were not being met, Buchanan said. Though it was a "redeeming feature" that the minister in charge was Andrew Little, who had a good track record of listening, she added.
Poor community engagement is nothing new; it bedevilled counter-terrorism efforts, according to the Royal Commission.
"Public sector agencies' ability to understand and meaningfully engage with communities is hindered by an insufficient appreciation of diversity and a lack of cultural competency," it said in its 800-page report.
It pushed for consultation to hear from broad swathes of people, not just community leaders, and the current hui have adopted that approach.
About 150 to 200 people were at the all-faith event in Wellington. The meetings are closed to media.
In addition, the commission recommended the public sector be required to follow international consultation standards that demand real collaboration, that genuinely influences policy.
These standards are from the International Association for Public Participation, or IAP2, and are a source of DPMC guidelines developed under the Open Government Partnership 2018-2020 National Action Plan.
However, Buchanan said the hui lead-up and meetings so far had not demonstrated these were being followed.
A skewed consultation would have bad impacts, she said.
"We feel that if if we take the Office of Ethnic Communities and turn it into a ministry, without significant review and evaluation, all we'll be doing is putting dysfunction on steroids."
Jewish community leaders approached for comment on their experience of the all-faith hui declined to comment.
