The findings of the Royal Commission into the Christchurch terror attack are expected to be released before Christmas, which National and ACT have described as "vague" and "unacceptable".
The Royal Commission will hand its report to Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti on Thursday, after more than 18 months of probing what state organisations, including police and spy agencies, could have done to prevent the attack.
Tinetti said on Tuesday she was "looking forward" to receiving the report. The Inquiries Act 2013 says it then needs to be presented to Parliament as soon as practicable.
But Tinetti couldn't say if it would be introduced to Parliament on the next sitting day, which would be next Tuesday, December 1. Tinetti said she expects the report will be made public before Christmas.
"I'm anticipating that that will be before Christmas, but as you probably will anticipate, this report is going to be quite lengthy so there's going to be a lot of working through on that process."
Her statement is being questioned by National and ACT because the Royal Commission's report has been written so that it can be published in full without the need for redaction to protect national security or privacy or confidentiality matters.
"The law requires that it be presented to Parliament as soon as practicable. Given no redactions are necessary, there's no good reason why it can't be released 24 or 48 hours after the Government receives it," said ACT MP Nicole McKee.
"Internal Affairs Minister Jan Tinetti says the Government will not release the report immediately, refusing to give a date or a reason for the delay.
"The obvious explanation is that the Government needs time to work out its PR strategy. Delaying until at least Christmas so it can figure out what it will tell media is just not good enough."
McKee, ACT's firearms reform spokesperson, said New Zealanders "deserve to know as soon as possible how a foreign terrorist was able to obtain a license and firearms and carry out his attacks".
McKee said after being "targeted" by the Government in the wake of March 15, firearms owners "deserve" to see the report as soon as possible.
The Christchurch terror attack led the Government to ban military-style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles, as well as some types of pistols. It also led to the gun buyback scheme, which is estimated to have cost around $150 million.
A second tranche of gun law reforms included changes to the length of firearms licences, harsher penalties for having an unlicensed firearm, as well as plans for a firearms register.
"Instead of waiting for the findings of the Royal Commission before passing new gun laws, the Government scapegoated the firearms community and rushed reforms through without consultation," said McKee.
She said firearms reform should start again based on the findings of the Royal Commission.
National's justice spokesperson Simon Bridges also says the findings should be made available as soon as possible but not for the same reasons as McKee.
"I don't discount that there may be some very sensitive matters that for very good public interest reasons shouldn't be released but if there is very strong public interest, our expectation is New Zealanders will see this report," Bridges told reporters.
"We've paid for it, it's in relation to a shocking historic event and we want to the fullest extent to understand what it's all about."
He described Tinetti's expectation that the report would be released before Christmas as "very vague".
"As I say, I don't discount that it may take a little while but I'd expect we should be able to work our way through that - or they should - and we should see it before Christmas."
Tinetti said it will be up to Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern to decide when the report is released.
"There will be a lot of working going through it once we see it," she said. "It won't be me that will be leading it from there it will be the Prime Minister."
She said the Government will take the families of the victims into consideration.
"This is something that has a big impact on the families involved and we know that this is an emotional time for them so it's ensuring that the processes are right, it's ensuring that we've got a good response to it and ministers have time to work through that response, so that we can be responsive to those families."
The Royal Commission conducted close to 400 meetings and interviews in the course of the inquiry since it was established on April 8, 2019.
The Prime Minister was interviewed by the Royal Commission in her capacity as Minister for National Security and Intelligence, as well as Andrew Little, the minister responsible for the spy agencies GCSB and NZSIS.
You can read the full list here.
