This article was first published by RNZ
Cabinet has issued a new directive to create a “colourblind” public service that focusses solely on need, not race, and doesn’t prioritise Māori businesses when awarding government contracts.
Public Service Minister Nicola Willis made the announcement on Friday, which meets commitments in both Act and New Zealand First’s coalition agreements with National.
The public service circular issued by the Cabinet Office, to prioritise need, can be read as both a rebuke and a ruling: it says the Government is concerned that public servants have been using race as proxy for need.
The new policy says: no more.
It comes after the Health Minister stepped in this week to scrap a Hawke’s Bay health initiative granting free GP visits to young Māori and Pasifika based on their ethnicity.
Willis says without the circular the government has been concerned “agencies may use ethnic identity or other forms of personal identity as a proxy for need, and therefore a justification in itself for targeted services”.
“The circular makes clear that when considering proposals for services targeted to specific population groups, agencies must provide a strong analytical case for any targeting, recognising that many variables can be used to identify and assess need, and that all variables should be considered before ethnic identity is automatically used to determine need.
The coalition commitment was meant to be fulfilled in the first six months of the new government but it has taken almost a year.
Act leader David Seymour said there was no scandal, rather it was “more important to get it right than meet a particular deadline”.
He told media in Auckland on Friday that the work was “technical and challenging” and he made it clear to Cabinet he was happy to wait in order to get the directive right.
It requires government departments to analyse data more intensely to find out what, other than race, is contributing to social and health issues.
Seymour says the country’s public service is a “professional” group of people who he expects will “heed the directive” set out by the Cabinet Office.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
Seymour says the circular draws on the International Convention on the Elimination of all forms of Racial Discrimination, which New Zealand is a signatory.
“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,” he said.
“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.”
High health need goes beyond just race, and Seymour says there are plenty of Māori, like himself, who don’t have high health needs, and those who aren’t Māori who do.
He said gone are the days of only using an ethnic lens to determine how best to provide public services to New Zealanders.
Coalition scraps ‘uneven playing field’
The Coalition is also scrapping Labour’s policy encouraging departments to give at least 8 percent of their contracts to Māori providers.
It’s an initiative that was introduced under the previous Labour government - first at 5 percent - and later lifted to 8 percent in March last year.
“This target risked a perception of discrimination and gave the impression of an uneven playing field for suppliers,” Willis says.
“We continue to encourage and expect Māori businesses to bid for and win government contracts.”
Willis says more can be done to create opportunities for a wider range of small and medium sized businesses to receive contracts and a group of ministers, including Māori Development Minister Tama Potaka, will be report back to Cabinet next year on how to achieve that.
Seymour says government contracting decisions should be made solely on what is the best value for money.
“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,” he said.
You can watch RNZ’s livestream of the event here
By Jo Moir of RNZ