Judith Collins says New Zealand should not send Brenton Tarrant back to Australia to serve his life sentence,even if it is popular with Kiwis.
Some of his most formative years were on our watch.
The victim impact statements for the sentencing of the Christchurch mass killer were the grace-filled antithesis of everything the Australian terrorist stood for.
New Zealand is confronting an existential question over how to move on after the cataclysmic events of March 15,2019.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison says the views of victims’ families were paramount in any decision about the murderer who was sentenced to life in prison without parole.
Judge Cameron Mander said Tarrant's crimes were so wicked that a lifetime in jail could not begin to atone for them.
Pressure is growing for Brenton Tarrant to serve out his life sentence for the mosque massacre in Australia.
"You have killed my son and to me it is as if you have killed the whole of New Zealand,"Aden Ibrahim Diriye told Brenton Tarrant's sentencing hearing.
Survivor Mirwais Waziri put aside his prepared court statement and addressed the white supremacist directly after not seeing"any shame in his eyes".
"You thought you could break us,you failed miserably,"the mother of a victim told the shooter in her victim's impact statement on day one of his sentencing hearing.
The four-day sentencing hearing for the Australian who killed 51 people begins on Monday. It presents complex legal and logistical challenges and the emotional turmoil of victims confronting their assailant.