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Writer's pictureAdministrator

DAVID SEYMOUR: “Need, not race” circular honours universal human rights

The government is issuing a Cabinet circular directing all public services be delivered according to need rather than race. This change marks a commitment to ensuring equal rights in the distribution of government resources and services, and reflects the values ACT campaigned on.


Under the new policy, all public services will be directed to those who are most in need, according to real analysis of all factors, rather than defaulting to race as a person’s primary characteristic. This approach is designed to target resources more effectively, addressing disparities and fostering a more inclusive society.


Policies like ethnicity-based surgical waitlists and university admission schemes are corrosive to an inclusive multi-ethnic society. They take the lens of ethnicity and look through it before any other.


The circular is sophisticated. It draws on the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, to which New Zealand is a signatory. The Convention forbids racial discrimination unless it is necessary, and even then it must be temporary.


The circular goes on to state the Government is concerned about public servants using race as a proxy for need. It says that, in establishing whether racial discrimination is necessary, it must consider all other variables before automatically using ethnicity to target services.


A colourblind public service is far better placed to direct its resources toward eliminating hardship and overcoming hardships that face individual New Zealanders.


Targeting services like healthcare and education based on race is lazy and divisive. The emphasis for the public service should be fitting services to the needs of every New Zealander.


As an example, the new approach means the public sector can’t simply assume Māori have shorter life expectancy because they are Māori, as Jacinda Ardern once infamously said. Instead, they must drill into the data and ask, is this related to living rurally, is it to do with poor housing, or other known factors? This kind of analysis not only avoids racial profiling, it allows practical insight into how health problems can be solved.


Policies like race-based surgical waitlists and university admission schemes run roughshod over principles of good policymaking. No-one should be moved backward or forward in a queue for services just because of who’s in their family tree. The public service has a wealth of data and evidence at its fingertips that can be used to target resources towards actual need, instead of making assumptions based on ethnicity.


Our population is more diverse than just Māori and non-Māori, but you wouldn’t know it from the way government departments have been operating.


Today we’ve also scrapped the so-called progressive procurement policy introduced by Labour that told departments that eight per cent of their contracts must go to Māori providers. Progressive procurement was a travesty that saw certain businesses gain unfair advantage just because the directors were able to identify the ‘right’ people in their family tree.


Government contracting decisions should be made on the basis of value for money, full stop.


David Seymour is leader of the ACT Party

3,449 views116 comments

116 Comments


Mickey
Sep 15

The logical next step to a colourblind public service better placed to direct its resources toward overcoming hardships that face individual New Zealanders, is to ration all public service resources to a needs based paradigm. Universal breast screening for women 45- 69, free bowel screening to everyone between 60-74, winter power benefits to the over 65, free Covid vaccinations to the over 5 years old regardless of their risk, free basic dental care up until 18 years of age; these and many other benefits are provided to the population in general regardless of need.


Providers must drill into the data and ask, what are other known factors besides age or sex to determine need and risk. This kind of analysis…


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And racist. And stupid. As I’ve bleated on about, unless there is clear genetic causation with a racial group, it is pointless discriminating on race. So-called ‘Maori’ have no known such causes (to my knowledge), ergo they are the no different than others. The racists scream that ‘Maori’ are poor and rural etc… So, help people who are poor & rural. Being racially ‘Maori’ and poor, is a correlation, not a causation.** Cater for need and it’ll work much better.

(** but buying into Maori culture may make you poor if you adopt the whole victimhood mentality. But then that’s a personal choice of course…)

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It looks as though the forum is being progressively shut down, More trouble than it's worth at present. I attempted to e mail Aaron Shanahan to catch up . However, both his email addresses are currently non functional.

For some time I've enjoyed the interaction with contributors. As a person now living alone , it was a window on the world.

All the best, C

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Very kind of you. And back at you !!

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"Need not Race" is an incontestable basis for the distribution of state funded assistance to its citizens, however the ability to recognise need as the sole criterion, requires those charged with the distribution task to be void of racial empathy or dislike? It's a tough ask! With the possible exception of David Seymour, why should we assume a cross section of civil servants should be any different from that of the rest of us?

True impartiality would require the judgement of Solomon... or a computer?

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True enough... such a condition would certainly disqualify you for the job.

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Macademia
Macademia
Sep 14

Meanwhile, Newsroom has this to say: https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/09/14/the-secret-diary-of-sheriff-seymour-2/?utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwY2xjawFSLCdleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHQlIVO2_Z3o8u77GwYziHKehuu5xSCVSOVUtXneATj3JmHqDXk391mODPQ_aem_XMltF_HqgfnSZaHX2jyEQA#Echobox=1726292415


Extract: "MONDAY

It was a bright cold day in September, and the clocks were striking thirteen. A cold wind swept through the main street of Dodge. Rain was headed over the mountain range and would wash all the scum off the streets – but not if Sheriff Seymour, First Minister of Moral Conduct and Freedom For All Within Set Bounds, got there first.

He rode his high horse into the saloon.

“Your finest whiskey,” he ordered, “and I’ll have tap water.”

The bar fell silent. The card players put away their hands, and the honky-tonk piano player closed the lid.

Just then Governor Luxon walked through the swing doors.

Sherriff Seymour got off his horse,…


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Well that was some excellent journalism right there…..


Not.

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Gerard
Gerard
Sep 14

Sad to say but this site continues to be dysfunctional.

'Likes' don't register, if they do they often disappear. Not that I'm (totally) fixated on any likes I might get, but it certainly is a way of seeing if the site is functioning. Notifications are received by email but don't register on the site.

Over many weeks there is no improvement in spite of the efforts of our administrator. I do hope Wix (?) is aware there's 'trouble at mill'.

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