A Muslim community leader said he is "disappointed" in Winston Peters' "inaccurate" claims against former prime minister Dame Jacinda Ardern's response to the March 15, 2019, mosque shootings in Christchurch.
The New Zealand First Leader last night accused Ardern of "an appalling lack of transparency" over what she knew about the terror attacks before they happened in a post on X, formerly Twitter.
A timeline of what Ardern knew — and when — was reported widely at the time, the former PM explaining her office was sent the terrorist's manifesto minutes before the first attack at Al Noor Mosque at a press conference on March 16, 2019, one day after the attacks.
"I was one of more than 30 recipients of a manifesto that was mailed out nine minutes before the attack took place," Ardern said at the time.
He accused Ardern of "an appalling lack of transparency" over what she knew about the terrorist attacks before they happened. (Source: 1News)
Abdur Razzaq of the Federation of Islamic Associations of New Zealand joined Breakfast this morning and expressed disappointment in Peters' claims, especially given his role as deputy prime minister at the time of the attacks.
"We are not in the political field, politicians we respect them for what they do... but we also expect the content to be right and the context to be right, [which is] why we are disappointed in what he said," Razzaq said.
Given the details of the terrorist attack that are publicly available, Razzaq accused Peters of not touching the Royal Commission of Inquiry report.
"The Royal Commission, in black and white and in large print, gave the facts and the facts are that 34 emails were sent... 28 to media, the rest was to Parliament," he said.
"He should've been aware of that, it's in the Royal Commission. It's big print, it's there in the cover. So it basically shows that he hasn't read the [report]."
For New Zealand's Muslim community, Razzaq said the frequency of misinformation and things being taken out of context was "quite serious".
"This is the age where tweets and social media can divert genuine public discourse, it can actually bring in misinformation and make it a fact, we've seen it in Trump's America. We also believe this isn't the right time for political posturing."
Razzaq also accused Peters of past instances of Islamophobia, saying there had been multiple moments of it from his political career as far back as 2004.
"He was just othering us, so in that context and what is more important is that this is the public discourse on what happened... to prevent future deaths. We should be focusing on that, what are the lessons learned? Not on this kind of political posturing and what I'd say is misdirection that's coming on for his own purpose.
"I don't think that's fair, I don't think that's even wise."
Razzaq said his community would still respect Peters as a political leader, whether he apologised or not, "[but] we expect a lot more of him".
"These are the questions that he should genuinely ask himself: is he contributing to the national narrative? Or is he contributing to the national misdirection?"
MPs respond
National's Simeon Brown and Labour's Tangi Utikere both agree it is up to Peters to remove the post, and greater focus is needed on the coronial inquest into the 2019 mosque attacks. (Source: Breakfast)
National MP Simeon Brown and Labour MP Tangi Utikere joined the programme later, both agreeing that it is ultimately up to Peters to remove his tweet.
"Ultimately that's up to him," Brown said, "but there's an inquiry going on into this issue at the moment, and really the whole conversation needs to be about that coronial [inquest], where that's going, and that's the appropriate place for that conversation."
Utikere agreed with Brown's sentiment but also noted the likely possibility that National would need to work with Peters and New Zealand first to form a new government.
"I think Simeon is right, these are matters that you need to put to Winston Peters, but I also think they need to be put to his incoming coalition partner Christopher Luxon because it's very clear that Winston is likely to be part of the incoming government."
Utikere used Peters' post to justify Labour leader Chris Hipkins' decision to rule out a coalition with New Zealand First.
"This is a prime example as to the type of behaviour that Chris Hipkins ruled out [in] working [with] New Zealand First."
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