Hide Rodney: Human Rights (One Law For All) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
Hide Rodney: Human Rights (One Law For All) Amendment Bill — First Reading 
[Volume:632;Page:4055] 
RODNEY HIDE (Leader—ACT) 
: 
 This debate just goes to show how misinformed we have become as a nation about the issues of culture diversity and racism and also shows our inability to debate those issues in a way that is wholesome and useful. 
I should acknowledge the Maori Party whose member Te Ururoa Flavell gave a very fine speech even though that party disagrees with me and will vote against the bill. At least the Maori Party understood the intent of the bill and actually took the trouble to read it unlike Peter Brown of New Zealand First and Mr Clayton Cosgrove—who I have to say brings a certain nasty side to this debate and to this Parliament. 
I pick up the Maori Party’s point that in an ideal world we would live without racial discrimination. The Maori Party’s position is that yes ideally we should not be discriminating on the basis of race. I accept that point but when I look across the House I do not think that is the position of Labour or New Zealand First. Those parties like the idea of Governments discriminating on the basis of race because that is the source of their power. It is the basis of their ability to make decisions and decide who will get what. The Maori Party at least admits that in an ideal world we would not be discriminating on the basis of race. Its point is—and I do not think I am doing it a disservice—that we are living in a less than ideal world because in the past there has been racial discrimination so racial groups in New Zealand are behind the eight ball and we need affirmative action to bring them up to some median for society. Once that has been achieved we can remove the need for affirmative action based on race. I think that is the argument of the Maori Party. 
So following on from Dr Wayne Mapp’s point affirmative action is a sort of temporary policy we have until somehow society racially equalises. But that goes back to a fundamental point and it is whether affirmative action—[ 
Interruption 
] Is it not interesting that Mr Hughes never speaks in this Parliament; he just sits there and chips across the House. He cannot make a reasoned contribution can he? Our having acknowledged that there has been racial discrimination and disadvantage in the past I ask whether it is the smartest thing for a society to do to actually perpetuate racial discrimination in a positive way. My answer to that is a resounding no. If we affirm action in favour of one racial group then every other racial group is disadvantaged. 
Peter Brown 
: Poppycock. 
RODNEY HIDE 
: I ask Mr Brown to consider this: if we have affirmative action for entry into medical school of people who say are green in colour then all people who are not green will miss out because there is no discrimination in favour of them. Mr Brown fails to understand that key point. 
The second thing we have to ask ourselves is whether the best way to go forward as a nation is to base our delivery of services on race. We know there are Maori who are doing fantastically well and that some are not. We know there are non-Maori who are doing well and that some are not. The key determinant is not race and if Mr Brown thinks it is race then I am afraid he has a genetic explanation for why people do not succeed in society—and there is a word for that. 
I say to the Maori Party that yes we should go for the ideal and that we should be striving for the ideal now because nothing will bring Maori up more quickly than a colour-blind country treating them like true citizens and addressing the issues of our society—issues of need deprivation and disadvantage irrespective of the colour of the skin of a man a woman a child or a baby.