Is the National Party jumping on another conservative right-wing bandwagon, like its stance on the Treaty Principles Bill? Last week the Prime Minister, Christopher Luxon,  said he was open to considering NZ First's ideas in its “anti-woke” agenda.

NZ First last week proposed new legislation which it said would end "woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets" in the public sector. Leader Winston Peters said the bill was needed because “New Zealand is a country founded on meritocracy, not on some mind-numbingly stupid ideology.”

New Zealand does not have to look too far back in its proud history of promoting equality for women to see far how far we have come. In a world first in 1893 adult women were given the right to vote. In other democracies, women did not begin to gain the right to vote until after the First World War.

New Zealand women still had a long way to go to achieve political equality. Women were not able to stand for Parliament until 1919, but it still took a while before the first woman was elected a Member of Parliament in 1933. There have been many other firsts for women in Parliament, including Iriaka Rātana becoming the first wāhine Māori MP in 1949, Jenny Shipley becoming New Zealand’s first woman Prime Minister in 1997, and Georgina Beyer became the first openly transgender MP in the world in 1999. Surely NZ First, and maybe Mr Luxon, are not saying that those women were in Parliament because of enabling legislation and not on merit?

New Zealand also does not have to look too far back in its history of supporting equality in the LGBT+ community to recognise how far we have come. Takatāpui or same-sex relationships and activities were largely accepted amongst pre-colonial Māori society. European attitudes at that time viewed sex between men as 'unnatural' and a breach of moral and Christian codes. Even as recently as the 1940’s and 1950’s men found guilty of sodomy could still be flogged or whipped, and serve their term of imprisonment with hard labour. The Crimes Act 1961 removed the potential term of life imprisonment for sodomy, but all legal sanctions against homosexual activity remained.

The Homosexual Law Reform Act was passed in 1986 and finally decriminalised sexual relations between men aged over 16 and it was not until the Human Rights Act was passed in 1993 that it became illegal in New Zealand to discriminate on the grounds of sexual orientation. The Human Rights Act also makes it unlawful to discriminate on the grounds of sex, marital status, religious belief, ethical belief, colour, race, ethnic or national origin, disability, age, political opinion, employment status, family status and sexual orientation. Most New Zealanders would have no problem with the protections and support that this provides some of our more vulnerable communities.

NZ First is proposing through its Public Works Act (Repeal of Diversity and Inclusiveness Requirements) Bill to scrap what it says are the requirement that public service employers ensure their workforces reflect societal diversity, remove mandates promoting diversity and inclusiveness in public service workplaces, and end the public service’s consideration of “workforce diversity and inclusiveness”.

It is hard to understand what NZ First is trying to achieve. Section 72 of the Public Works Act clearly requires public service employers to give preference to the person who is best suited to the position. This is reinforced in section 73 which provides that a “good employer” is an employer who operates an employment policy containing provisions generally accepted as necessary for the fair and proper treatment of employees in all aspects of their employment, “including for the impartial selection of suitably qualified people for appointment (except in the case of ministerial staff)”.

Perhaps Mr Peters takes issue with section 75 of the Act, which provides that a public service employer must be guided by the principle that public service employers should reflect the makeup of society; and have employment policies and practices that foster a workplace that is inclusive of all groups? Which groups does Mr Peters think are not worthy of being included?

The Labour Leader, Chris Hipkins, quickly came out and said NZ First’s idea was “ridiculous, frankly”. “We have a Public Service Act that requires the public service to reflect New Zealand and New Zealanders. I passed that, and I am very proud of it. I think Winston Peters is just basically trying to take a leaf out of Donald Trump’s book.” He said Trump’s values are not consistent with those of most New Zealanders.

There is every reason to protect hard won reforms that enable and support an inclusive society where discrimination in its many forms is not tolerated, particularly in employment. It is clear that New Zealand’s public service is required to appoint a person on merit. A workplace should not be a place where discrimination is politically supported. Read more....