BLIA South Island’s Participation in the Meeting on Public’s Responses to the Report by NZ Royal Commission
On 19th February 2021, under the invitation of Canterbury Interfaith Society, Buddha’s Light International Association (BLIA) South Island attended a meeting organised by the New Zealand Government to meet with the Minister of Health Hon. Andrew Little. The objective of the meeting was to obtain the public’s responses on the “Report: Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Terrorist Attack on Christchurch Mosques on 15 March 2019”. The 120 attendees to the meeting included Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Hon Priyanca Radhakrishnan, Members of Parliament, senior public sector officials, and BLIA South Island Representatives Kok Wei Low and Ryan Wang.
Minister Hon. Andrew Little and Minister Hon Priyanca Radhakrishnan have both attended the activities of Fo Guang Shan (FGS) Temple in North Island and have had good impressions of FGS. Prior to the commencement of the meeting, Minister Hon. Andrew Little took the initiative to greet and converse with BLIA South Island representatives Kok Wei and Ryan, who then took the opportunity to convey to Minister Hon. Andrew the greetings of Venerable Abbess Manshin and presented him with the 2020 BLIA New Zealand Activities Report. Kok Wei afterwards invited the two Ministers to participate in the 2021 Buddha's Birthday Dharma Function at FGS Temple South Island.
The meeting discussed the following items:
- The findings of the Royal Commission of Inquiry report
- Work underway by the Government to address these findings
- How communities can be involved in the Government’s response.
At the meeting, Minister Hon Andrew Little and Minister Hon. Priyanca Radhakrishnan had open discussions with the attendees on various issues including the problems faced by different races in life. The attendees exchanged ideas and actively interacted with one another in the meeting. The attendees thanked the Government for its willingness to face up with public opinions by inviting them to attend such an important meeting and for willing to collect public opinions. Understand the general situations and the difficulties faced by the public in their daily lives, with the good intention of finding solutions to solve these problems.