New Zealand: Muslim Group Urges Government to Reconsider National Security Budget Cuts
This appeal follows a recent Security Intelligence Service threat assessment, which indicates that a "terrorist attack on New Zealand soil remains a realistic possibility" and would most likely be carried out by a "self-radicalised" individual acting alone.
FIANZ chairperson Abdur Razzaq emphasized the importance of adequate funding for resources to monitor and respond to potential threats. He expressed concern that cost-cutting measures were dismantling the security infrastructure designed to prevent incidents like the Christchurch mosque shootings, Star News reported on Sunday.
"So we are requesting the government to actually look at their budget and give this a high priority because reports like this are barometers of how unsafe we are - and we are," Razzaq stated.
Last month, the coalition government announced it would not implement the final eight recommendations of the Royal Commission into the terrorist attack on two Christchurch mosques, where 51 people were killed on March 15, 2019.
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Razzaq criticized the government for ignoring the recommendation to establish a dedicated agency to coordinate anti-terror initiatives.
"After March 15th no agencies said that they were responsible because nobody was looking and because they weren't looking, they didn't find anything," Razzaq said. "What the Royal Commission recommended there should be a single agency which would coordinate and have a strategic direction in terms of our national security and that's gone."
Razzaq also highlighted that cuts to the Department of Internal Affairs, police, and locally-led initiatives and research were undermining the lessons learned from the attacks on the Al Noor Mosque and the Linwood Islamic Centre.
Source: Agencies
