Inquiry into Christchurch terror attacks extends deadline for public submissions

9:20 pm on 20 July 2019

The Royal Commission into the Christchurch mosque shootings has extended its deadline for public submissions.

Sir William Young.

Sir William Young Photo: NZ Government

The high level inquiry is investigating the accused gunman and his activities before 15 March. It is also examining the role of security agencies.

Last month, the inquiry invited members of the public with relevant information to make submissions.

At the time, commission chairman Sir William Young said the public could play a role in considering what was known - if anything - about the accused.

"We want to hear from Muslim communities, organisations and individuals about their experiences that relate to [the scope of the inquiry].

As well as written submissions, the commission is using a range of undisclosed methods to connect with the Muslim community.

The deadline for submissions has been extended to 23 August.

Islamic Women's Council spokesperson Anjum Rahman said the added time would allow them to compile a comprehensive submission.

"There's so much material that our organisation needs to go through to do its submission and a one-month deadline was just not realistic for us to do that."

The women's council had expressed their concern about the lack of time given to make submissions with the commission.

"There's a lot of information that we need to gather through OIA requests as well and given that there's a 20 working day time frame for OIA requests, some of them we're not going to receive until after the 31st of July," Ms Rahman said.

"So we did let the commission know that either we needed an extension or we would have to make two submissions."

Ms Rahman said she hoped that feedback had an impact on their decision.

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