The Government has admitted that much of the support for victims of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings "fell away" last year and has vowed to do more to support those suffering ongoing trauma from the incident.
The establishment of an oversight advisory group was announced on Friday, in line with recommendations from the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack.
Andrew Little, Lead Coordination Minister for the Government’s response to the Royal Commission, says the group will include not just people from the Muslim community, but also people from other faith and ethnic communities around the country.
An official remembrance service will take place on Saturday, ahead of the two year anniversary of the March 15 attack, in which 51 people were killed.
Speaking to The AM Show on Friday, Little acknowledged more needed to be done to help those affected by the shootings.
"In the immediate aftermath of the terrorist attack there was a lot of support given to the community from a lot of Government agencies. That all fell away last year, but actually many members of that community are still feeling the trauma," he said.
"For some of them they're not getting the counselling support and trauma support that some are getting - it's a bit uneven.
"Those who were physically injured get ACC, those who were just witnesses to it don't get any ACC support. We've got to make sure that those who have been traumatised can get the trauma help and trauma counselling that they need."
He said many people still needed help getting back into the job market and with housing.
"It's just about making sure that those families that have been affected and traumatised and had their lives completely disrupted get the support to get their lives back on track."
Little also said he would take up the issue of making sure the video of the shooting was no longer able to be found online.
"That was part of the commitment that Facebook made as part of the Christchurch Call when they eventually came onboard, to make sure that their algorithms meant that that was taken down. [It's] really disappointing to hear that that is still available."
Due to the nature of the internet it was a real challenge to stop people sharing such content, he said.
"There's thousands of websites and places to go where people who are of that bent can do their evil, nasty stuff. And it's a challenge for the security agencies, and the police are trying to keep abreast of where the stuff is popping up.
"We have a commitment from various social media companies that their technology, their algorithms will keep this stuff away from people - we've got to carry on talking to them to make sure that they're following through."
