Reporting on a speech.

Speech report. Jacinda Ardern addresses parliament after Christchurch shooting.

New Zealand prime minister Jacinda Ardern has urged the country to come together in support and remembrance of the Christchurch massacre victims, and to deny the “notoriety sought” by the perpetrator.

In her address to parliament a week after the far-right attack which saw 50 worshippers killed in a Christchurch mosque on an online live stream the Prime minister outlined the steps being taken to support the affected communities and send a message to other would-be extremists.

Ms Ardern refused to say the name of the terrorist saying, “He will, when I speak, be nameless.” in an effort to silence his.

Instead, she implored everyone to, “speak the names of those who were lost”. 

Her sentiment has been largely supported and many publications have not printed his name.

In the speech she made an emphasis of saying the names of the victims and commending the bravery they showed.

She told the house, “Naeem Rashid, originally from Pakistan, died after rushing at the terrorist and trying to wrestle the gun from him.”

And,

“Abdul Aziz, originally from Afghanistan, confronted and faced down the armed terrorist after grabbing the nearest thing to hand”

Ms Ardern emphasised that he was not a New Zealand citizen and his ideology goes against everything it means to be a New Zealander.

A key focus of her speech was about prevention of future violent attacks she stated how “we cannot allow this to happen again.” before telling the house that the countries gun laws “will change.”. Telling them that decisions on gun laws will be made before the house meets again, suggesting immediate action to tighten gun laws.

She stated that although they believe there’s no threat of another attack the country will remain on high alert.

As the massacre was streamed live and remained online on the original post for over ten minutes and was viewed thousands of times the Prime Minister told social media companies, they have to take some responsibility regarding hateful content being made and spread, she said,” they are the publisher not just the messenger” and, “it cannot be all profit no responsibility”.

Ms Ardern also used the speech to reassure her citizens, by outlining extra policing to be around mosques at prayer times and providing phone numbers that can be rang for support if people are distressed after the incident.

The speech was concluded with a final message of unity in English, Maori and Arabic.