Over the past week, we have launched our "What is racism" campaign, where we have demanded our Government answers the question: what exactly is racism?

It was only last year the Police launched an investigation into bias and racism within policing practices at a time when the escalation of violent crime was causing many New Zealanders to live in fear.

With this in mind, on 12 April 2023, I wrote to the Minister of Police and asked:

"What is the definition of racism? Please answer this as it pertains to the Ministry of Police and your role as minister. When your ministry deals with racism or discusses it, what definition do they use?”

This question shouldn't be hard to define, especially if they have been investigating the issue over the past year.

Yesterday I received their response:

"The OIA allows people to request official information held by Ministers and specified government agencies (agencies). The OIA cannot be used to force Ministers or agencies to engage in debate or to create justifications or explanations in relation to something a person might be interested in. There is no obligation to create new information to answer an OIA request."

So this police research, which has cost taxpayers two million dollars, was spent to investigate something that that has no definition within the Police.

When New Zealanders challenge being divided by race and being treated differently before the law, the accusation of racism is easily thrown around to stifle important conversations.

Yet when we ask to know what racism means, they claim that they have no obligation to create new information.

Do we not have a right to know what we are funding? Not to mention what we are being accused of!

New Zealanders need to know that all of us will be afforded equal protection, and we need your help to make sure of this.

Please sign our open letter to the Minister of Justice

The definition of racism must not be allowed to be manipulated to suit a political narrative.

Send a clear message to this Government that, no matter who the target is, racism will not be tolerated.

 

Thank you for helping us spread the message that the foundation of our democracy is under attack. 

At the 11th hour yesterday evening, after making it through the legal department, the Herald agreed to publish our advertisement. 

This is not just a silly stunt. We need to have more New Zealanders aware that our democratic rights are being threatened, and once lost, will be hard to recover. 

Our rights and protections, as equal citizens, are being taken away. The undermining of our democratic rights was confirmed when the Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty, said: 

"There are provisions in our laws around the Treaty that aren’t democratic..There are provisions that we have in this country that wouldn’t stand up to a purely academic democratic framework.

But that’s not how we work in New Zealand." 

He is wrong! This is how we work in New Zealand – one person, one vote. 

As mentioned last week, we have important issues to talk about before this election. Front of mind for every New Zealander, going into this election, must be the protection of your democratic rights. 

We are seeing, every day, what a dangerous road we walk down, when we differentiate the rights of entire groups of people based on ethnicity. Allocating guilt and the status of the oppressor to one, allocating victimhood and special rights to another. 

It does not work and has never worked, anywhere in the world. 

Don’t let this Government divide us further. 

Together we are making a difference. We are exposing the failure of these destructive race-based policies and divisions. 

It is through your help and support that we can force the uncomfortable conversations and hold this Government to account. 

We must not allow our democratic rights to be traded for political capital at this election. Each of us has issues and concerns that affect our day-to-day lives, but that does not justify the Government determining that race is the differentiating factor that elevates some issues above others. 

Whether it is labelled partnership or co-governance the foundation is a manipulation of our democracy.

This Government is using race-based division to alter our democratic rights and gain traction through flawed and dangerous legislation. One Person, One Vote, is exactly how we work in New Zealand. 

And remember, on October 14th the voters strike back ………..

Recent events have shown that not all racism is treated equally in New Zealand and that senior members of the Government perceive that some people don't ‘qualify’ as victims of racism.

A few weeks ago, I sent an Official Information Act request asking ministers to define racism as it relates to their portfolios. What should have been a straightforward question was met with further proof that ministers like Kiri Allan don’t actually have any clue what racism is. Or, alternatively, they aren't willing to share it with voters.

The Justice Minister’s office claimed that it isn’t their responsibility, under the OIA, to ‘create’ a definition where it doesn't exist. It seems strange that her ministry wouldn't have a definition for it given they have a 'National Plan Against Racism' as a 'Key Initiative' on their website.

We have received similar replies from ministers Nanaia Mahuta, Willow-Jean Prime, and Rino Tirikatene. We are still to hear back from the rest.

Without a definition, how do they have any idea what they are actually fighting?

It's unsurprising that New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner has been evasive and selective in his role too. 

We recently learnt that not only did Meng Foon donate to Kiri Allan's 2020 election campaign, but his wife is effectively the minister's landlord (with heavy discounts) for her local electorate office. This is significant because Allan is the minister responsible for the Race Relations Commissioner.

At a Cabinet level and throughout our public service, it seems to have become the political consensus that racism is a tool to be used to justify the undermining of our democracy. This Labour Government has based legislation and policy on a foundation of racism.

New Zealanders are now afforded different rights determined only by race.

And to avoid any criticism of their race based policies, we do not even have a definition of racism. Even whether you can be a victim of racism is dependent on whether you're seen as the 'right' race.

We cannot allow our nation to be divided into brown and white; or as we are led to believe victim vs oppressor.

If we are to stop the division of our nation by race, then we need clarity from this Government as to what it means and to hold them accountable. All New Zealanders must be afforded the same rights and protections regardless of colour.

We need to make our voices heard. Our Government needs to be held to account. They need to know that we do not tolerate any form of racism, no matter who it is targeted at.

SIGN OUR OPEN LETTER TO MINISTER OF JUSTICE KIRI ALLAN

Just the other week, Marama Davidson claimed she knows “who causes violence and it's cis white men”.

This comment should have sparked outrage, but her party stood by her, defending unacceptable and racist comments. The Prime Minister stood by her!

Her comments were provably false as, unfortunately, violence is present in all cultures and ethnicities. Yet we didn't hear a peep from the people who have been banging the "misinformation" drum at the drop of a hat. 

Can you imagine if this was said about another race?

We have seen time and time again that the Government is selective about when it takes racism seriously.

And it goes beyond the Government.

Not long ago, I wrote an open letter criticising Tusiata Avia’s racist poetry and tried to get it published in one of New Zealand’s biggest newspapers, only to be told we can’t call her racist – even though her work is objectively racist.

The media uncritically mirrors the race-politics of those in power in New Zealand. We have few options for holding the Government to account.

However, in October, we have our best chance to send a message about the kind of country we want to live in. What we need to do is exercise the power of the election long before we step into the ballot box. 

We can do this by making clear to politicians what we will base our votes on. That means we simply must be more politically active than we have ever been before. We have a plan to put our messages in front of every politician and expose more Kiwis to our concerns.

For the next five and a bit months, we will be calling on our supporters to sign open letters, send emails, talk to their local MPs, and share our messages with everyone who will listen.

Today, we are asking you to sign our open letter to Minister Kiri Allan

The letter demands clarity around what this Government understands racism to be and calls on the  Ministry of Justice and the Human Rights Commission to have zero tolerance for racism, no matter who (or what colour) the target.

If we can't agree on this simple thing, we can't have fruitful discussions about anything race-related. We need to be able to talk about matters like co-governance and what role the Treaty has in New Zealand in 2023. The ambiguity and tensions around race makes this so difficult.

This year has already been hectic, and it is only going to ramp up as we get closer to October 14th. We are ready for the battles ahead, but we can only succeed with supporters like you alongside us.

You may remember that last year, on May the 4^th, we published this advert in the New Zealand Herald.

The advert played with the famous line from the Star Wars movie “May the Force be with you”, emphasising that our democracy was under attack.

Predictably we received advertising complaints and were accused of scaremongering, but the advert was hard to miss, with even left-leaning media unable to ignore the democratic issue.

I am asking for your help to reinforce the message that our democracy is not a tradeable commodity for political gain. It is only through spreading the word to other Kiwis that we will be able to combat this attack on the foundations of our constitution. 

You will recall that our concerns about democracy were scoffed at by our then Prime Minister, Jacinda Ardern, when she stated that the one person, one vote was “overly simplistic”.

Now, Minister of Local Government Kieran McAnulty has confirmed the Government’s continued contempt for democracy when he said:

“There are provisions that we have in this country that wouldn’t stand up to a purely academic democratic framework but that’s not how we work in New Zealand.”

MCANULTY IS COMPLETELY WRONG, THAT IS HOW WE WORK IN NEW ZEALAND – ONE PERSON, ONE VOTE.

Democracy is the foundation of that equal consideration – one person, one vote. However, our elected representatives apparently have no understanding of this democratic principle.

We have one of the proudest democratic credentials in the world, with every person having voting rights as early as 1893. We can no longer take our democracy for granted, so we need to engage with a much broader audience before this year’s election.

To launch this discussion, we want to revisit our May the Fourth advertising as the first stage in a series of actions defending our democracy and equality before the law.

Can you help us spread this message? Commit to telling 3 friends or family members this weekend about what is going on. 

Since we last highlighted that our democracy was under attack New Zealand has seen, to highlight a few issues:

1. Legislated unelected representation by Ngai Tahu onto the Canterbury Regional Council
2. Segregated of our health system by race
3. Over 80,000 submissions about 3 Waters dismissed by the Local Government Minister because they largely said the “same thing”
4. Unelected 50% governance arrangements in the control of water despite extensive opposition
5. Closed select committee submissions, excluding public engagement, about the renaming of New Zealand to Aotearoa

It is only through democracy that we can hold our elected representatives to account. When power and authority get handed to those who carry no cost for decisions, it's too late.