Carter Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
Carter Chris: Debate on Prime Minister’s Statement 
[Volume:623;Page:18303] 
Hon CHRIS CARTER (Minister of Conservation) 
: 
 The Prime Minister in her statement to Parliament yesterday said that we are building a nation that offers fairness in opportunity and is tolerant and respectful of all. Those are words that all New Zealanders should be proud of I am sure but not all New Zealanders practise the sentiment. 
This evening I was privileged as Minister for Ethnic Affairs to represent the Government at a launch by the police of a programme where they are engaging with ethnic peoples so that police officers are more sensitive about cultural differences in our country. Simultaneous launches were also being held in Auckland and Christchurch. Those events tonight in the three cities are really indicative of the attitude this Government has towards the increasingly diverse society we live in—the multi-ethnic and multicultural society that is the reality of New Zealand today. This Government led by Helen Clark is an inclusive Government. It seeks to unite communities not to drag them apart. 
Last year at Orewa the Leader of the Opposition Don Brash gave a speech that sought to divide New Zealanders—to separate Maori New Zealanders from non-Maori New Zealanders. This year we had another speech at Orewa that sought to divide New Zealanders. This time the divide was between those on a benefit and those who are privileged and lucky enough not to be on one. The speech sought to divide New Zealanders not to unite them. 
The police today were showing a lead among Government agencies in seeking to bring New Zealanders together through understanding. That is a very sensible move because it means that the very difficult job the police do in maintaining order in our society is made easier because they are able to deal with all New Zealanders regardless of cultural difference. That is a very sensible approach and it took place because 3 years ago Cabinet passed a decision that all Government departments would seek to engage with the increasing ethnic diversity of New Zealand. Departments would be sensitive in developing policies that recognised the reality that 10 percent of New Zealanders are not of Anglo Celtic Polynesian or Maori origin. They are everything from Koreans to Russians and from Croats to Bosnians. 
That is the reality of New Zealand today and it is a country I am very proud of. I am especially proud as Minister for Ethnic Affairs to be part of a Government that has been extraordinarily proactive in addressing that diversity. We have done all sorts of things in the past 5 years. First of all we set up an Office of Ethnic Affairs. That had never been done before. My predecessor the Hon George Hawkins was the first Minister for Ethnic Affairs. 
From that foundation 5 years ago we have created that direction for Government departments to recognise the different cultural needs of people and to try to develop policies that deal with that reality. We have set up Language Line a $2 million programme where people who want to ring a Government agency but who may not be very proficient in English can now address problems in 33 different languages whether it be with the Accident Compensation Corporation the Inland Revenue Department the Housing New Zealand Corporation or the police. 
In fact all members of this House will receive a letter in the next day or so from me as the Minister for Ethnic Affairs informing them that their electorate offices will be able to use Language Line. I know as an MP from West Auckland that my electorate staff are increasingly facing constituency cases where people are coming in from new migrant communities in which language is a problem. The Language Line programme set up by this Government with the $2 million a year we put aside to work with that is another example of how we are a Government that is committed to trying to bring New Zealanders together to solve problems. 
A year ago the Prime Minister gave an apology to the Chinese community. That was a unique and wonderful thing to do. As many members of this House would be aware the Chinese community in New Zealand suffered what was probably the only institutional legal racism that any community in New Zealand has faced. They had a punitive poll tax first of all of £10 and then of £100 which was levied in the 1890s. It was not abolished until after the Labour Government came in in the 1930s. That Government abolished the poll tax in the early 1940s. The Prime Minister recognising that this was still an issue for the Chinese community and responding to approaches from that community acknowledged that a historic grievance had taken place. She issued a formal apology and the Government set aside $5 million so that a trust for the descendants of poll tax payers now has a brief to preserve Chinese culture in New Zealand to promote diversity and recognition of difference and to encourage good community relationships. 
 That is a first. Chinese people also suffered poll tax discrimination in Australia Canada and the United States. None of those other countries have addressed that historic issue. When I was recently in Malaysia talking on conservation issues to the Malaysian Minister of Science Technology and Environment a Minister who happened to be ethnic Chinese I discussed that issue. He was absolutely blown away—incredibly impressed that the New Zealand Government was prepared to recognise that discrimination had taken place for the Chinese community and to do something about it. That is something I am very proud of. 
In the two and a half years I have been Minister for Ethnic Affairs I have held nine listening forums right around New Zealand where hundreds and hundreds of people have attended from different ethnic communities. They have come along met with me as Minister for Ethnic Affairs met with the chief executives of large Government ministries such as Housing New Zealand the Immigration Service New Zealand Police the Inland Revenue Department the Accident Compensation Corporation and so on. We have addressed in a practical way issues that those ethnic communities are facing. 
That is another example of a Government prepared to build a nation a nation the Prime Minister said yesterday that offers fairness and opportunity tolerance and respect for all. It is not a Government that tears New Zealanders apart or that sets one New Zealander against another—Maori against non-Maori and beneficiaries against non-beneficiaries. It is very important that we as a Government never go down that path of dividing New Zealanders because members should look at where that can go. 
Last week I represented the Government at the synagogue in Auckland when it commemorated the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz concentration camp in Poland a place where over 2 million people were exterminated because of racism because of xenophobia and because of governmental discrimination. That extermination took place under a repulsive and repressive Nazi regime in Germany. I am not saying that New Zealand would ever get to that stage but that is ultimately where the path of division goes. That is where the path of racism and division in communities can ultimately lead to. 
Since Auschwitz was liberated 60 years ago government-sanctioned racism has happened again in the world sadly. In the former Yugoslavia—a place that you Mr Speaker would be very familiar with; I know that as a young man you attended school in that country—in the 1990s in perhaps the most developed country of Eastern Europe 200000 people were killed in genocidal wars. Those took place in a very modern European country. That fighting in Bosnia and Croatia had shades of some of the racist wars of World War II. 
Following that in the country of Rwanda in the Great Lakes region of central Africa a terrible genocide took place against the Tutsi people who lived there carried out by the majority Hutu in that country. Closer to home in the Solomons another community where politicians sought to divide communities conflict between people from the island of Malaita and that of Guadalcanal has led to armed intervention by Australia New Zealand and other Pacific countries in the Regional Assistance Mission to Solomon Islands. That is a direct outcome of politicians seeking to exploit divisions within communities and setting people against each other which leads to society breaking down people being killed and civil disorder taking place. At this very moment in the Darfur region of Sudan Arab militias are battling against people of African origin in a racist war over land and resources. 
Those are practical examples of politicians who have used divisions within society for their political advantage. Of course 60 years ago it was Adolf Hitler in Germany. A few years later it was Enoch Powell in Britain. More recently we have seen Mr Le Pen in France Jorg Heider in Austria Pim Fortuyn in the Netherlands Pauline Hanson closer to home in Australia and today Mr Mugabe is playing the race card to divide people in Zimbabwe—whites against people of African origin. Politicians do that to keep political power. 
So there is a moral imperative. The previous speaker the National member for the Taranaki region talked about a Government not having leadership. What I have just talked about is a Government showing leadership and bringing New Zealanders together not dividing them. 
The ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Clem Simich) 
: The next contribution from New Zealand First will be split two ways between Bill Gudgeon and Pita Paraone. There will be a bell at 4 minutes.