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...