The Government needs to "continue to show leadership" when it comes to combatting violent extremism online, Labour leader Chris Hipkins says.
It comes as the Christchurch Call becomes dogged by controversy after reports a key agency - the Internet Governance Project - had pulled out.
A Newstalk ZB report said the Christchurch Call was accused of pressuring its advisory network to not publicise crucial reports.
Hipkins, who was a senior minister when then-PM Dame Jacinda Ardern's Government founded the Christchurch Call, told AM the global coalition would only work if international partners were keen to remain involved.
But Milton Mueller, the founder of the Internet Governance Project, told ZB India's commitments weren't being honoured by New Delhi.
"The Government needs to continue to show leadership on it," Hipkins said of the Christchurch Call.
"I think combatting online violent extremism is something that we should all be concerned about; we see ongoing evidence of this around the world - and here in New Zealand... of how online platforms are being used to foster violent extremism. That's in nobody's interests and so I think we do need to make sure there's still good international cooperation to combat that."
Last year, it was revealed Dame Jacinda would become New Zealand's special envoy for the Christchurch Call following her resignation as Prime Minister.
Current Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has previously praised Ardern's work on the cause and in January asked her to continue in the role.
However, Luxon's Coalition partner David Seymour criticised Dame Jacinda's focus on the Christchurch Call while she was Prime Minister.
In 2022, Seymour said it was "truly pathetic that we have a Prime Minister who spends all this time ineffectually grandstanding while people are getting robbed at home".
For now, New Zealand's future role in the Christchurch Call remains unclear. The Government was expected to make that and Dame Jacinda's involvement clearer "in the coming weeks", The Spinoff reported last month.
Cabinet had made some "in-principle decisions" but could not yet make them public due to the risk of prejudicing "the constitutional conventions which protect the confidentially of advice tendered by or to ministers of the Crown", a Prime Minister's office spokesperson told the news site.
Hipkins, meanwhile, said New Zealand's future support of the Christchurch Call should depend on "the outcomes that we want to get out of it".
"I think this was the sort of thing you always keep under review - the point of the Christchurch Call was to form an international coalition who were focused on targeting online violent extremism. That will only work so long as there are still a broad range of international partners keen to be involved in that and that requires leadership not just from Dame Jacinda, who I'm sure is doing a fantastic job, but the current Government need to be involved in that as well."
Newshub.
