The Government has watered down its proposed hate speech reforms after more than 19,000 submissions during consultation.
In a statement, Justice Minister Kiri Allan said only one major change would be made to existing laws in order to address "incitement towards religious communities".
Meanwhile, the Law Commission has been requested to further analyse "whether further protections should be afforded to specific groups, including the rainbow and disabled communities".
“Currently, under the Human Rights Act 1993, it is illegal to publish or distribute threatening, abusive, or insulting words likely to ‘excite hostility against’ or ‘bring into contempt’ any group on the grounds of colour, race, ethnic or national origins.
"Those grounds will now be extended, in both the civil (section 61) and criminal (section 131) provisions, to cover religious belief," Allan said.
The Government's original proposals to overhaul hate speech laws were initially prompted by recommendations from the Royal Commission into the March 15 mosque terrorist attacks.
"This change will protect more groups from harm and strengthen social cohesion in Aotearoa New Zealand."
Last year, the Government consulted on six proposals that would amend the Human Rights Act to make protections from hate speech "clearer and more effective".
READ MORE: Feedback sought on sweeping hate speech proposals
These included a wide-ranging set of changes to reform hate speech laws.
Proposals would also clarify protections for trans, gender diverse, and intersex people - alongside disabled people.
But on Saturday, Allan said there would need to be a further review in order to make any additional substantial reforms.
"These issues are complicated and the review will ensure any further changes to the incitement provisions meet society's expectations and needs," Allan said.
"As demonstrated many times previously, such as with abortion law, the Law Commission is well equipped to take on a complex and sensitive issue, and carefully consider how the law should be shaped in response to it.
READ MORE: Ardern: Govt could've communicated hate speech proposals better
"Until the commission has done that work, there will be no changes to the definition of groups protected from discrimination, or any changes to how the existing legal regime against incitement operates in terms of thresholds, offences or penalties, as originally proposed."
She said the Government intended to make its law changes - regarding religious belief - within the current Parliamentary term and subject to the full select committee process.
National rejects watered-down change
But National's justice spokesperson, Paul Goldsmith, has already rejected the watered-down proposal - saying that it continues to threaten free speech.
"We do not support the proposal, because it would significantly narrow the scope of free speech and expression in our country," he said in a letter to Allan. "People may not enjoy having their religious beliefs insulted or ridiculed, or held in contempt, but the ability for people to be able to do that in a free society is important."
"Laws regulating free speech are a complex area of law, ripe with potential for unintended consequences, where we are trying to balance competing interests."
Speaking to Newshub Nation this morning, Goldsmith refused to say whether a National government would repeal the changes when pressed.
"Look, they started out broad with hate speech reform - they were gonna do big stuff and they've drawn it right back to a small thing. I think, frankly, what they've done is they've just picked something so that they can show that they've done something."
He said a National government would instead choose to "prioritise" action on violent crime, delays in the court system, and youth crime. Goldsmith said supported the Royal Commission's recommendations on other changes after the mosque attacks.
"We are very focused on the overall Royal Commission - they did a lot of recommendations and the Government hasn't picked up all of them at all," he said.
"We've supported them around firearms laws and a whole bunch of things, but we've always expressed our concern around the hate speech proposals because we are very concerned [with maintaining] free expression."
Meanwhile, the Greens' justice spokesperson Golriz Gharaman said it was "dangerous" for the Government to leave out "rainbow, gender, and disabilities communities" from its law changes.
New legislation around hate speech is in the pipeline but the Government isn't saying when it will go before Parliament. (Source: 1News)
"We know that extremism now hugely targets our rainbow, gender, and disabilities communities. Leaving them out of these changes is dangerous and makes New Zealand an outlier among like-minded nations, such as the UK, Canada, EU, with modern hate speech and hate crime law."
"Rather than wasting the last three years, the Government should have been brave enough to have the hard conversations we need to have as a country; to shine the light into the shadows of hatred that exist in pockets of our society."
She said the change for religious communities was "welcome" but that "no group has called for just themselves to be protected".
"The Government today shows a sad unwillingness to respond."
"It is a sad reality that 51 members of the Muslim community had to be brutally murdered by a terrorist radicalised online, a Royal Commission of Inquiry, and still no comprehensive reform of the very laws that could have prevented that tragedy."
Govt wanted to get 'balance' right - Allan
Allan said the Government had to get the "balance" right on the proposed changes.
"I need to ask for that independent Law Commission [to] help us to get the balance right. And what we also need to do in the interim, we've got to take our country folk with us," she told Newshub Nation.
"We have to make sure that New Zealanders are going to support these types of reforms - if we're introducing greater protections for those communities that are most vulnerable, but also limit that right to freedom of speech."
In her statement, Allan said some debate on the topic had become "deliberately divisive and misleading" over the past year.
"Some of the debate on this topic over the last year has been disappointing, and at times deliberately divisive and misleading, particularly in regard to the proposals that were out for consultation," the Justice Minister said. "This is not, and never has been, about the Government wanting to restrict free speech."
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