New Zealand may be culturally diverse, with more than 200 ethnicities, but this year was a stark reminder it is not free from racism and discrimination, Jacinda Ardern said in her New Zealand national statement to the United Nations General Assembly today.
The Prime Minister spoke about the harrowing day of March 15, and called on the world to unite in the fight back against terrorism.
She told a story about a child asking her if he was safe in the days after the attack.
"As adults, we are quick to make the practical changes that will enable us to say that such a horrific act could never happen again - and we did that."
She talked about the quick decision to change guns laws - banning military style semi-automatic weapons and assault rifles in New Zealand. The Government has also started on a second tranche of reforms to register weapons and change our licensing regime.
"These changes will help to make us safer," she said. "But when you’re a child, fear is not discrete, and it cannot be removed through legislative acts or decrees from Parliament.
"Feeling safe means the absence of fear, living free from racism, bullying, and discrimination, feeling loved, included and able to be exactly who you are.
"And to feel truly safe, those conditions need to be universal. No matter who you are, no matter where you come from, no matter where you live."
The Prime Minister is attending the United Nations General Assembly, and took her family along today.
Ms Ardern said the young Muslim boy in Kilbirnie wanted to know if she could grant him all of those things.
"My fear is, that as a leader of a proudly independent nation, this is one thing I cannot achieve alone. Not anymore," she said.
"The alleged terrorist used social media as a weapon. The attack demonstrated how the internet, a global commons with extraordinary power to do good, can be perverted and used as a tool for terrorists. And so what happened in Christchurch, as well as a profound tragedy, is also a complex and ongoing problem for the world."
Yesterday, Ms Ardern met with supporters of the Christchurch Call - a commitment by governments and tech companies to eliminate terrorist and violent extremist content online - to check on their collective progress.
They announced that a key tech industry institution will be reshaped to give effect to those commitments, as well as launching a crisis response protocol to respond to such events in the future.
"Neither New Zealand nor any other country could make these changes on their own. The tech companies couldn’t either," Ms Ardern said.
"We are succeeding because we are working together, and for that unprecedented and powerful act of unity New Zealand says thank you."
She also addressed climate change in her speech, saying, New Zealand only makes up 0.17 per cent of global emissions, but like so many other nations, New Zealand's gross emissions have been rising steadily since the 1990s.
"That’s why we have coupled ambition with action," she said, talking about the work New Zealand has done to lower emissions.
"New Zealand will never produce all the food the world needs, no matter how many sheep you may think we have, but we can produce the ideas and technology the world needs for everyone to farm and grow in the most sustainable way possible. New Zealand is determined to do good, and be good for the world."
From New York, the PM also announced a big funding boost for the Pacific.
This week New Zealand, alongside a group of like-minded countries, will announce the launch of a new initiative that applies trade levers to climate related goods, services and technologies, Ms Ardern said.
"It's time for trade deals to become a force for good on climate action."
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