Roy Heather: Human Rights (One Law For All) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Roy Heather: Human Rights (One Law For All) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4052] 
HEATHER ROY (Deputy Leader—ACT) 
: 
 I rise to speak in support of this very good bill that has been put forward to this House by my colleague Rodney Hide. I am afraid that those people listening in and other members in this House have heard tonight an awful lot of very confused speaking and thinking. This bill is actually very simple. One law for all actually speaks for itself: it means that everybody—every citizen—in this country regardless of religion race or ethnicity is equal before the law. But when we sit here and listen to the debate tonight we understand that the Government is opposed to this bill because it knows best. It knows what is best for every person in this country and it wants to be calling the shots. 
Many of the other parties however seem to think that positive discrimination—whatever that might be—is OK but negative discrimination is not. We have heard example after example of the abhorrence those parties have for negative discrimination. But positive discrimination is OK because those parties are in a position to know better than everybody else. 
Discrimination of any sort is absolutely wrong. As soon as we give one group in society—any society—advantage or privilege over the rest of that society we automatically disadvantage another group. I look to health to give an example. Dr Cullen said that his father died of emphysema and that therefore it was very important that all the young Maori women in this country who smoke should not experience the same thing. Was he saying by making that statement that it is actually OK for Pakeha to die of lung cancer? Was he saying that it does not matter whether anybody else smokes? Asians smoke quite a lot yet he has not put in place smoking programmes specifically for them. He is excluding people as a result which is discrimination. 
The primary health organisations that this Government is extraordinarily proud of have given all sorts of people cheaper medical attention but it is based not on people’s need not on a condition they might have and not on a disease but on the colour of their skin. Any people of Maori or Pacific Island descent are eligible for cheaper care if they belong to a primary health organisation that has more than 50 percent of people of the same ethnic group enrolled—Maori or Pacific Island are specified—regardless of any condition they might have and regardless of the state of their health. Whereas people who might have great health needs but live in a wealthier geographical area for example or who belong to a primary health organisation in which 50 percent of people of Maori or Pacific Island descent are not enrolled miss out on the cheaper care despite the fact that their health is worse and their needs are greater. 
So the arguments tonight are actually very simple. In putting forward this one law for all bill we are giving the Government the opportunity to put forward programmes based on need and not the colour of one’s skin. I say categorically—and I would have thought everybody in this House would agree—that discrimination of any type is wrong and should not be encouraged. Discrimination is exactly what most of the parties in this House tonight except for ACT and National are supporting. They are supporting the idea that discrimination of all sorts is OK. We in ACT say it absolutely is not.