It is a sentiment she has repeated in Parliament but the Royal Commission's report was released publicly on December 8 last year while new hate speech laws were promised within weeks of the mosque attacks in 2019. Ardern also campaigned on extending legal protections for groups that experience hate speech before last year's election in October. Presumably this is an attempt to make the proposed law change look more tentative than many suspect was intended before the extent and intensity of opposition were revealed. Of course, they are the very groups most likely to be firmly in favour of a law change. In March 2020, the Ministry of Justice chief executive Andrew Kibblewhite said that hate speech was a "tricky thing" to navigate.

Source: New Zealand Herald July 05, 2021 05:15 UTC