Dialoguepk

Far-right  extremists still threaten New Zealand, a year on from the Christchurch attacks March 11, 2020 5.01am AEDT   Paul Spoonley ,  Massey University In the hours after the Christchurch mosque attacks on March 15 last year,  I wrote  that I hoped New Zealand would finally stop believing it was immune to far-right extremist violence. A year on, I’m not sure enough has changed. I’ve researched far-right extremism for decades – and I would argue it remains a high-level threat in New Zealand, not just  overseas . My assessment is that there are about 60 to 70 groups and somewhere between 150 and 300 core right-wing activists in New Zealand. This sounds modest alongside the estimated 12,000 to 13,000  violent far-right activists in Germany . But proportionate to population size, the numbers are similar for both countries. And it only takes one activist to act out his extremism. In the past year, there has certainly been greater investment by New Ze