Last week the Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy wrote an open letter to all New Zealanders. She wants to hear your views on racism in New Zealand. The letter is part of the Human Rights Commission’s first nationwide anti-racism campaign.
Dame Susan says the That’s Us campaign, which asks Kiwis to share their own stories about “racism, intolerance and hatred” in New Zealand, is about “the kind of people we want to be”, and “the kind of country we want our kids growing up in”.
If you would like to reply to Dame Susan’s letter to you, her email address is SusanD@hrc.co.nz – or feedback can be provided through the special website www.thatsus.co.nz.
The Human Rights Commission has justified the campaign on the basis that New Zealand is an extremely diverse society, and since diverse societies elsewhere have become more racially intolerant, they expect it to occur here too. With around 400 formal complaints about racism received every year, the Commission wants public feedback: “if we’re going to better understand racism then we need to know what it is” – which in itself seems extraordinary!
In particular, they highlight “casual” or “quiet” racial intolerance – the type that they say occurs in everyday life and often goes unreported. As an example they cite the case of a woman registering students at a university, who “smiles at every other student but the brown ones”.
Clearly this campaign is an exercise in redefining racism to become substantially wider than what most rational people would assume it to be. It is a further example of the arrant nonsense emanating from the Race Relations Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission.
This week’s NZCPR Guest Commentator, broadcaster Lindsay Perigo, who shares with us a speech he delivered at a recent debate with Dame Susan Devoy, believes the Race Relations Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission should be abolished:
“I’d abolish Dame Susan. Nothing personal! I’d just abolish the office of Race Relations Commissar and with it, the entire Human Rights Commission, to which I routinely refer as the Human Wrongs Commissariat.
“This cossetted coterie of taxpayer-supported fascists of the left just want to impose their precious, prissy, puritanical Political Correctness upon all of us. They’re our Thought Police, prattling on about diversity when they’re attempting to outlaw the most important diversity of all, ideological diversity and make their Political Correctness compulsory. Everything in their universe would be either illegal or compulsory. In my universe they’d have to find real jobs and the legislation that set them up would be repealed.”
The legislation under which the Race Relations Commissioner and the Human Rights Commission operate is the Human Rights Act 1993, which essentially enshrines the United Nation’s human rights agenda into our domestic law. As a result, the Commission is now promoting the highly controversial United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which Helen Clark’s Labour Government considered too radical to support. While the National Government signed up in 2010 – at the behest of the Maori Party – Prime Minister John Key went to some lengths to assure the New Zealand public that it was “a non-binding aspirational goal”. Yet here we are with the Human Rights Commission now proactively promoting the Declaration, including through brochures which advocate Maori self determination and self government.
One of the Human Rights Commission’s main roles is to pursue those they claim are discriminating against others.
Dr Paul Moon, a professor of history at the Maori Development Unit of the Auckland University of Technology, explained how, as a result of the publication of his book, This Horrid Practice, in 2008 – which portrayed cannibalism as a violent and widespread practice among traditional Maori – he was the subject of an anonymous complaint to the Human Rights Commission.
But it doesn‘t even need a person to lay a complaint for the Human Rights Commission to act as the Thought Police – as a former Massey University Economist, Dr Greg Clydesdale found out. The Commission got so worked up about a research paper he had prepared from Statistics New Zealand data, showing that Polynesian immigration was fuelling an underclass, that a 69 page report was compiled on his case – without a single complaint about his paper ever being received.
Such investigations, supposedly to prevent discrimination, can not only destroy reputations and careers, but they create an atmosphere of fear and intimidation that seriously undermines our fundamental right to free expression – a freedom, that is especially critical in an academic environment.
There also remains an on-going concern that these government officials are overly biased in favour of minorities. This was certainly the case back in 1988, when a scandal over a Maori activist’s call to ‘kill a white’, forced the government to change the law.
According to the Hansard of the Parliamentary debates at the time, the Race Relations conciliator refused to censure Hannah Jackson, who made her inflammatory statement at the University of Auckland marae – he only censured a newspaper editor for reporting the event.
The incident was considered to be so serious, that it caused Parliament to repeal section 9A of the Race Relations Act, which made it illegal to publish, broadcast or make public statements “likely to excite hostility or ill-will against, or bring into contempt or ridicule, any group of persons on the ground of their colour, race, or ethnic or national origins”, since it did not apply on a marae.
As Winston Peters, then MP for Tauranga, explained in the debate, “the Race Relations Conciliator, when asked to consider an offensive statement – ‘Go out and kill a white and be a hero’ – did nothing. He said that he had no role whatever to play. He then attacked the Auckland Star. A person in Auckland made a totally outrageous statement that offended 99 percent of New Zealanders, and said that someone should go out and kill a white and be a hero. The Race Relations Conciliator could not be moved to say one word of opprobrium about it… The view and the myth that if one belongs to a minority one cannot be guilty of racist behaviour are being reinforced, and they are rubbish.”
As a result of that controversy, Section 9A of the Race Relations Act was eventually replaced by Sections 61 and 131 of the Human Rights Act 1993.
Section 61 addressed the “kill a white” issue by prohibiting the use of “words which are threatening, abusive, or insulting or likely to excite hostility against any group of persons on the ground of race”, not only in public places, but also in “any place” where “the person using the words knew or ought to have known that the words were reasonably likely to be published…”
In addition, the new law clarified the fact that the media can legally report on such matters.
Section 131 of the Act established the fact that inciting racial disharmony is a criminal offence – punishable by a fine of up to $7,000 or imprisonment of up to 3 months. As a safeguard, however, under Section 132, the consent of the Attorney General is needed before any prosecution can be instituted.
However, in spite of there being a high threshold for prosecution, the activities of the Race Relations Commissioner continue to have a chilling effect on free speech – especially their media monitoring project, aimed at naming and shaming news outlets critical of Maori rights.
Over the years, vested Maori interests have learnt to use human rights laws to seek advantage, by using accusations of racism or intolerance to close down the debate, whenever anyone speaks out against their agenda.
The New Zealand Centre for Political Research has been the subject of such accusation when commenting on important matters such as the government’s plan to establish iwi control of the country’s fresh water. More recently we have been criticised for publishing details of where local body candidates stand on the vexed question of unelected representatives with voting rights being appointed onto Councils.
As an independent organisation we remain undeterred, and congratulate our newsletter readers, who are also standing up to the racism being expressed by iwi and the likes of Dame Susan. Our Local Government Election Project is a community service – thanks to the help of newsletter readers, the Vote 2016 index HERE provides details of which candidates around the country oppose the appointment of unelected representatives – who cannot be held to account by their local community – onto their councils.
With voting papers due to be sent out next week, we are encouraging readers to visit the website and vote for candidates brave enough to stand up against iwi control of councils. The direct link to this resource is www.nzcpr.com/local-body-elections-2016 – so please feel free to spread the word and help assist others in making their voting decisions.
Some iwi regard the notion that only elected representatives should have the right to vote on councils as “old world thinking”. They seem to believe that Treaty settlement money and resources gives them a supreme right to by-pass democracy and have their representatives appointed to sit and vote at council decision-making tables. They are not only pressuring councils for this, but some are threatening them as well: “If iwi are not valued by their local community and encouraged, rather than discouraged, to participate and invest in decision-making at all levels of council they will rightfully invest their economic and political influence in other regions.”
But in our view it is tribalism that is “old world thinking”, not democracy. A progressive society needs to respect cultural differences but move into the future as one society with one sovereign and common laws. That view will no doubt continue to attract the criticism of those who profit from a separatist agenda, and those like the Race Relations Office who are part of that industry.
Iwi are also pushing for seats on local councils through the Treaty settlement process – and central government is capitulating with legislation to that effect. Probably the best known case is that of the Independent Maori Statutory Board, which was established during Auckland’s amalgamation in 2010. The legislation states that the nine member board was set up as an ‘advisory’ body – with “a maximum of 2 persons to sit as members on each of the Auckland Council’s committees that deal with the management and stewardship of natural and physical resources”.
The new Auckland Council however, appointed members onto many other Council committees and gave them voting rights.
The interesting question, therefore, is whether the candidates standing for the new Auckland Council would support a motion to return the Statutory Board to the advisory role envisioned by the Government when the legislation was drawn up. In other words, would they be prepared to take away the Board’s representation on many of the Council committees and their voting rights?
The reality is that New Zealand society does not want to be divided by race, even though this is being aggressively promoted by the Human Rights Commission – including putting increasing pressure on every local authority in the country to adopt Maori wards. While this move might find favour with the iwi elite, it most certainly is not supported by the vast majority of communities, who simply want to keep race out of local politics.
So back to Lindsay Perigo’s question – should our Human Rights laws be axed?
It’s also question that is being asked in Australia and in Britain, where there is a growing recognition that there is no need to protect individuals from the actions of others through human rights legislation.
With New Zealand already having an established Bill of Rights to limit the power of the state and protect our freedom, surely it’s now time to abandon the legislative human rights approach, which is increasingly doing the opposite – expanding the power of the state and limiting our freedom!
THIS WEEK’S POLL ASKS:
Should New Zealand’s Human Rights Act be abolished?
*Poll comments are posted below.
*All NZCPR poll results can be seen in the Archive.
THIS WEEK’S POLL COMMENTS
| The Race Relations Office has shot themselves in the foot so many times they have lost the credibility they could have enjoyed. | Keith |
| The race relations authority are the ones that foster racism by diving everyone up into little groups. All we need to do is call ourselves human and we need to race relations organisation any more. NZ has to go forward with one set of laws for all, so ToW has to be replaced for a start. | Andy |
| It should go, without question and so should Dame Susan Devoy, who doesn’t seem to understand her function. My two adult sons have moved overseas and John Key, the Maori Party and racism are ensuring that they’re not likely to return anytime soon. | Les |
| It’s still relevant now. | Ravind |
| Susan Devoy has evil intentions and the race relation commission and any other group set up by government past and present should be abolished that silence free speech and promote racism like Maori first and all other races last. | Ken |
| Definitely!!! | Tony |
| Yes, the sooner the better. The Race Relations Commissioner should also go post haste. It is causing/generating problems and is anti-democratic and indeed fascist. We now have apartheid in this country. On top of that the Maori Seats should also go. They achieved their aim long ago. This country is gradually reverting to tribalism which won’t end well. As for the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, ‘Maori’ are not indigenous so surely the Declaration is not applicable. | Helen |
| Does the human rights act ensure legitimate Pakeha New Zealanders get equal rights to Maori. I don’t think so. Therefore what use is it. And Maori are not even the Tangata Phenua on this land. Ref; https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IkjcOWihD3k | Don |
| Dame Susan Devoy has been captured by the maori elite and now believes that suggesting we are one people, and should all live by the same laws and standards is racially insulting to maori. | Frank |
| The infantilism of all this is what strikes me. Susan Devoy has become the biggest racist sycophant to Maori Elitism. | Monica |
| No more race based anything would be nice. The goverrnment creates the racism. | Gerhard |
| There should be one set of consistent laws that ensure all people are treated equally. Difference should be based on demonstrated need (e..g., health & access to education) not on events more than 100 years ago. | Dene |
| Our rights as rightly belong to New Zealand citizens are enshrined in our own laws, we do NOT need the phony Marxist platitudes of the UN embedded into our culture that has prescribed devisive arpathied racist outcomes. Cancel the Human Rights legislation as it stands, abolish the polarizing Human Rights Commissioner and decouple all reference to the United Nations from any and all laws in New Zealand. Remove all reference and make marxist affiliations such as ICLEI and Agenda 2030 illegal. All these apparatus disenfranchise the citizen voter. | Richard |
| I firmly believe that the only human rights available to us those we go out and earn. They are not an entitlement to bestow on people by some government appointed bureaucrat with whose only qualification is proficiency in a sport or some other field totally unrelated with reality! | Jim |
| Of course it should be abolished, it’s totally PC or would have promoted NZ’s true founding document, the one which split us from NSW where the Treaty put us, Queen Victoria’s Royal Charter of 16-11-1840. It is mandatory by law that all Treaties be followed up by a Royal Charter, but has she done her job of protecting all New Zealanders through bringing this document forward? Has she? | George |
| I am for abolishing any policy that has its roots in the UN. Am I a racist? Just because I am more and more disliking anything “maori” I hear about would prompt some play the race card to label me a racist. I will tell you something far more revealing, and it is that I am prejudiced against the racist maori movement. This means I have my own free thoughts and freedom of speech to convey those thoughts to whoever I choose, and in whichever forum I choose. But because I am white, I would probably be charged with something and locked up. But, if I was black/brown or other race speaking my mind in the opposite, I would be held up as some sort of hero. Race Relations commissioner position has to go. | Neil |
| May be they believe they are correct but do not reflect the mood of most of the country. | Robert |
| Although in many respects the Human Rights Act is passed its use by date, it probably helps those who think that they need a cuddle rug to give them solace. | Peter |
| Replace the Act with a law that values everybody’s Human Rights. At the moment it is only Maori who appear to have any rights, the rest of creation is out of step. | Maureen |
| We are all one people. There is no place in this country today for Maori to have so many privilages as there are no Maori who do not have european blood of some form. | Robert |
| It may be imperfect but we must have a position that is fair to all. | John |
| I am 85 years old in my earlier years enjoyed minority groups having the same equal rights as I and every other group. Which has now been eroded away by different PC authorities resulting in a divided society, which in the future if not stopped may result in a civil war. | Harley |
| Sadly government or puppets there of are too weak to address the real problems of NZ but quick to get their snouts in the trough of excessive remuneration and undeserved amoral perks. | Rowan |
| It is abhorrent to a democratic process that enables, claims to a racial type, however small the connection is, or isn’t that advantage is an expectation. ONE RULE FOR ALL is wedded with overwhelming common sense. | Barry |
| Dispose of the them and us attitudes of the now privileged Maori elite. | Jeff |
| The sooner the better! | Kevin |
| There is sufficient protection of true human rights without the act. | John |
| It is another taxpayer funded bunch who are putting the average New Zealand citizen who pay this lot their wages at a disadvantage by their stupidity. | Digby |
| It helps protect us from out of control governments. | K |
| We need to be thinking as one people, with everyone equal if we are to have a country with a future for all. Believe it creates racism not fixes it. | Sue |
| I first became disenchanted with this role when Chris Laidlaw was commissioner. He expanded what was anticipated to be a position of fair and unbiased opinion but it was anything but. Since then some of the appointees have been truly awful and their comments and published views sickening in their ill conceived statements. Scrap it and the sooner the better. They are the divisive ones not the vast majority who are afraid to comment honestly for fear of offending. | Mike |
| All of the commissions should be abolished. | Hugh |
| A waste of time and money. Get rid of the race relations commission and its commissioner at the same time. | Ann |
| Interesting that Dame Susan Deviod is not interested in hearing about episodes of racial harmony, tolerance and respect. Kind of shows you where their priotities are, doesn’t it? | Graeme |
| The Act is now the most threatening legislation to the well being and indeed the future of New Zealand. It is generating way more harm than good with this PC rubbish and should be abolished forthwith. | Graeme |
| It discriminates against the majority of NZ’s and allows minority groups to much power. | David |
| Tha actions of Dame Susan have been very disappointing and highlight just how racist the Human Rights Commission has become. This commission and Dame Susan are making the situation worse. | Ronmac |
| Lets get every white New Zealander to protest to Susan Devoy about being called a pakeha as frankly I find it offensive to be called a white pig as since the the maori were cannibals human flesh is described as tasting like pork and some of there relations would have known,while we are at it lets get rid of some of the crazy and corrupt un laws,the pakeha party is looking interesting now and even the nz Indian party may help to get rid of the so called nz human rights act and the gravey train that goes with it. | Richard |
| It would seem the Act is permitting the strengthening of the rush for separatism within our nation, a course of which I am vehemently opposed. Given some of the comments and edicts that have emanated from the office of the Commissioner we as a Nation do not need the Office or the Act. | Michael |
| There will always be racism. Until the day when the government or any other power has the ability to control our thoughts and actions by our very nature there will never ever be a perfect world……. | Colleen |
| The intent of the act is important to retain. The implementation of it is a different matter. | Jay |
| I believe there is no place for the PC Human Rights UN imposed when there is no morally sound equal emphasis on human responsibilities especially when eg animal rights are increasingly imposed over human rights! | Cyril |
| Totally unnecessary. | David |
| Gender & Racial Neutrality should be the aim. | Doug |
| Yes, and the sooner the better. | Athol |
| Absolutely and irrevocably. | Denis |
| A waste of tax-payers’ money – it’s past its use-by date. | Fiona |
| There is far too much race-based privilege being given to Maori, such as more and more Treaty “settlements” (despite previous “fully and final” settlements which have been conviently forgotten), along with funding for all sorts of things with no accountability being required – and the list goes on and on. Along with the Human Rights Act the Waitangi Tribunal should be abolished, or, at the least, given far less credence and sway that it currently has. As a fourth-generation New Zealander (of British descent) I see no reason why I should apologise for the actions of previous generations. | Laurence |
| So should Susan Devoy ‘s role be abolished as well. | Greg |
| They are causing more unrest amongst New Zealanders. | Richard |
| Perigo, you have hit it right on the Nail. Get rid of the Race relations conciliator and the associated empire. | Maurice |
| The HRC along with the racist Waitangi Tribunal should be axed immediately, they are racist and divisive in the extreme. They cost the white NZ tax payer hundreds of millions a year, money that should be going into Health Education and infrastructure to benefit everyone. the gravy train keeps rolling along at an ever increasing pace, collecting more and more carriages as it rolls along it’s never ending journey. All rather ironic of course, as it is the racists that are pointing the finger at those of us that only desire equality. Funny That! | Stevo |
| Repeal the position of race relations commissioner, and dismiss Dame Susan Devoy Abolish New Zealand’s Human rights Act, it is not needed!! | Michael |
| Most definitely if we aspire to be a mature multicultural society. | Kevin |
| There is no longer any need for it, and it is being misused to promote racial discrimination rather than prevent it. | Robbie |
| Excessive application of Human Rights has become a universal fraud and is stifling freedom of speech and expression. | Tony |
| As it stands today, the HRC SHOULD be abolished. It was established in the 1970s to promote equal treatment of ALL people; now it is actively promoting an apartheid system where one small group has special rights and privileges over the rest. It is based on race, and it is based on who got here first. How can we be ONE people, all New Zealanders, when the HRC promotes such racial dIscrimination? How do our leaders expect there will be no negative reaction to this injustice? They need to get their greedy heads out of the sand and get this country back on an equality for all basis, back to a Democracy. | Joyce |
| Absolutely, not helping in the least. | Graeme |
| I don’t know what the agendas of the major parties are, but they sure don’t have the welfare of all NZ’ers in mind. Politically correct sabotage. | Mitch |
| ABSOLUTELY YES. WHEN IS THIS PANDERING TO MAORIS GOING TO STOP. THIS RACIST PC BULLSHIT IS GOING TO CAUSE A LOT OF TROUBLE IN THE VERY NEAR FUTURE. | PETER |
| Sooner the better. | Peter |
| There is heaps of Maori rights in this country now but I am not aware of ANY European, Chinese, Indian or any other race rights. | Mike |
| It should be amended so it is relevant. We all have human rights and they need to be preserved, enshrined in law and addressed if abused. At the moment my basic human right is being abused. My right to access to whatever nature provides for us all. To date, after complaining to this commission, my basic human right is still being abused by my government. The gutless people in the commission have not taken my case up with the government. Making a plant illegal is human madness. The commission has been no help at all to me in it’s current form. | Peter |
| Simply because there seems to be no viable replacement. Yup, am sick of PC bullshit, etc., but at least there some protections in the Act… | Andy |
| The Act has been twisted out of all recognition. | Peter |
| Our govt too PC in not standing for the majority viewpoint and maori able to make full use of this. | Mel |
| Human Rights Acts only PROMOTE racism. Has any good come out of this Act? Only more devisiveness. The more we legislate and try to change any wrongs by parliamentary decree; the more we drive a wedge into human rights. Minorities scream that their rights are violated so often; they forget they are destroying the rights of their claimed oppresors. | Peter |
| The sooner the better. | Rob |
| It is unbelievable how a vast number of National supporters vote for the label & refuse to recognize the socialist agenda of John Key & his cronies. Regulation after regulation {state control} is being piled upon the productive sector. Instead of encouraging self worth, this government is encouraging governance by race not by ability regardless of race. Personally, I admire any-body, no matter what their ethnicity, who get out of bed in the morning, endeavour to make a better life for themselves & their families. I despise those who make no effort to better themselves, & because hand-outs have been given so freely for so long, they expect a free ride through life. Now if I recognize that one ethnicity is over represented in that category, does that make me a racist? | A.G.R. |
| Get rid of this women and her bunch of wrist ringing bleeding hearts brigade of left wing low lifes. | Mike |
| To be honest I’m sick of all this clap trap about Maori and what they want and deserve. It is time that I was allowed to speak out without fear of retribution that I believe that we should be one people under one law and no exceptions for race colour or creed. | Andrew |
| An archaic law whose ideology does not meet modern day reality. | John |
| A good idea. Whenever we get a NEW Race Concilliator they have different ideas and Rules as to how we should tolerate the Race Issue It is hard to understand how it came to the situation it is now. otehr than the Elders of our own maori Race no longer either are alive or have NO voice. I can remember when we were all accepted as ONE however this over a few years has made things more divided this is also amongst our own Maori Race. Gone are the days when we never had to lock our doors, close windows, hae alarms inserted in geneeral our homes have become fortresses not only during th day but also at night. Our Police force is a joke but not aas so as our Court Judges whom often only give repeated offenders a slap on the hand with a wet bus ticket and tell them don’t do it again, then we have those that murder children yet have the gall to not admit as to the offender put all in jail until; someone confesses. I could go on but I won’t not enough space and I want to hit a point Come back the Old Days when we were all friendly and assisted one another without ruining this country of ours completely. | MARYLIN |
| It is anachronistic. | Charles |
| The human rights Act should be very carefully ammended to remove the ability of changes due to other legislation and improve the wording of its’ principle clauses so as not to be able to be distorted by PC judges and others. The position of RRC should be abolished. | Victor |
| Any Act that favours or disfavours a person on account of their race (whatever that word means) is an instance of racism, and should be legally punished. Any such features in the Human Rights Act should be removed, or the whole Act repealed if nothing of significance remains in it after such removal. | Ron |
| Unwritten law of liberty should prevail – everything is permittee except that which is prohibited. | Brett |
| Dame Susan is creating the problem with her attitude to her appointment. Lets get rid of the Commission and the Maori seats and let us all try to be Kiwis. All for one and one for all!!! | John |
| No racial ‘division’. | David |
| Any form of legislation that has its origin in UN Declarations, Charters or agendas, should be abolished on that basis alone. The UN is merely a front for an emerging “new world order” which would ultimately do away with the rights and freedoms that we have enjoyed for so long under our Western form of government. The threat that this corrupt, bloated, bureaucratic, organization poses to our way of life is all too real and we should avoid it and its divisive PC ideologies like the plague! | Scott |
| The HRC and the Race Relations Conciliator must be eliminated from our system ASAP. They are anti-democratic and indeed fascist! Instead of assisting free speech and freedom for all, they have built up systems that encourage the opposite. The Media Monitoring Project is the most farcical but sinister invention I have ever heard from any free-world government agencies in existence! | Paul |
| It has become the crutch for every minority group in NZ over the last forty years or so who become “outraged” at every minor infraction that occurs and it then becomes distorted in the political correct environment that the Act has created. | Tom |
| By supporting UNELECTED representation and full voting rights for Maori on local Council Boards, the Human Rights Commission is clearly exhibiting outright Neo-Marxist racism in NZ. Maori like any other citizens should stand for election – not just for Local Body election but also for Parliament itself. Anything else is racist and and a support of such. | Hylton |
| NZ has virtually ceased to develop and the country cannot afford the luxury of such an act. In many cases freedom of speech is also challenged. Just think of the savings with the accompanying bureaucracy abolished!!! | Frederick |
| Simple. Look at it. | Vernon |
| 100% YES. | David |
| Individual rights should be protected but I believe our current legal system does that well enough and I believe we do not need special Human Rights legislation. | Pieter |
| Racism is one of the greatest scourges ‘killing’ our ‘one nation/one people’ society. | Stuart |
| Susan Devoy’s job is a joke. It panders to all the wanking left wing liberals who are dragging NZ further into a pit of minority dominance. Susan might have been a good squash player, but is hopeless in the job she is doing. | Lloyd |
| When will New Zealanders wake up to the fact that APARTHEID is alive and well in NZ? Until the huge number of part Maori in this country stop being given the separitist option to register on the Maori voters role, we undobtedly have nothing but APARTHEID. It MUST stop. | Geoff |
| It’s NOT for ALL kiwi’s & favours maori views NOT ordinary kiwi’s. | Cindy |
| Absolutely. And the Maori seats in parliament. | Donald |
| The most harm and trouble creating piece of legalesation. Do away with the race relation commissioner. It is a waste of time and money. | Johan |
| Yes! For many reasons – and the sooner the better!! I differ from Lindsay Perigo in that I’m not an atheist and I’m of mixed race, but I have to agree that Lindsay “nailed it”. | Martin |
| I am so over our political correctness. | Kerin |
| It is being abused well outside the original intent of such legislation. | Bob |
| We are all protected under our common law,Its just more of the same lets keep the iwi happy and give them more of what they have already to much off Dame Devoy needs to look after stopping all this bulls–t and get a proper job as She is blinkered by Iwi. | brian |
| There is no racial divide in New Zealand. Our overall extended family has 5 Chinese, 3 Maori plus Irish, Scotish, English and an American (European descent). We get along very well. Yes – scrub the Race Relations Office. | Stuart |
| It is worse than pointless, in that it is GENERATING problems. | Geoffrey |
| NZ’s Human Rights Act has done nothing but antagonise the latent existence or the natural differences that exists between all culture, creeds and racial types. We don’t need the United Nations, or any politicians to tell us, or force us that; “black lives matter” any more than, “white lives, or yellow lives or green lives matter. We all know what matters, and why? If from CCTV footage we see a felon with a hoody carrying out a crime, and then we find that the hoody was hiding a black man, we start thinking differently about hoodies, or burkers, or vales. That’s not racism…that’s just the way of the world? Is the bleeding-heart brigade going to change that…or make it a better world? | Ced |
| This is simply costly time- wasting political correctness gone too far. Petty differences between individual people have no standing. | Graeme |
| Yes, if only to get rid of all the greedy bleeding hearts that run the outfit. | James |
| Definitely abolish the Race Relations Commissioner. It has no part in a free society of 1Law4all if we ever achieve it. | Don |
| They are the worst racists of the lot. | Burce |
| Endless talk as New Zealand Burns. When will the truth come out at the Maori TAKEOVER bid. | Lance |
| Past it use by date. | Raewyn |
| The so called “Human Rights” Act should never have seen the light of day through parliament in the first place. | Richard |
| Lindsay said it all. | Dennis |
| Loved Perigos remarks – must have missed them. | Neville |
| We should be promoting one nation of diverseraces, not ignoring the majority and giving more rights to the minority. | Heather |
| Obsollete Act that imposes unnecessary cost on the New Zealand taxpayers. While Parliament is abolishing this Act, what about getting rid of the Race Relations Commssioner at the same time. | Chris |
| I agree with L Pergo comments. | Peter |
| It`s racist to start with. Devoys been a complete failure right from the start and incompetent for if she had been fit for the position, would have abolished the treaty of Waitangi (Disaster.) all settlements after 1940 rescinded, made to pay tax backdated 7 years and that equal shareholding (Tradeable.) be given to each and everyone registered with the individual iwis. | Robert |
| “Reverting to tribalism” is a phrase which explains and encompases the limitations of some of the human rights advocates. | Denis |
| The Act appears to be long overdue for another analysis and a proper summation. | John |
| Just imagine if muslim got up and suggested they ‘kill a non believer/christian/white and die a hero’. What an uproar that would cause. It seems to me that the more stupid the laws the more outrageous the claims become. | Tim |
| I would like to think so but the agitators would not agree. Also when it appears that a white person has no rights regarding racism although we can be called white trash, honkies etc without them being offended or being able to take action if they were offended. It seems a one sided affair. But I could be wrong. Whatever one really cannot legislate to make people like each other, that goes for family members too. | Audrey |
| Moronic! And D.S.D. is a perfect fit. | Rod |
| Completely unnecessary and a blot on our political landscape-the sooner it is gone along with similar positions, the better. | Roger |
| Same treatment for all. | Kevin |
| Sick of the abuse it gets from the PC brigade to use for their own agendas. | Graeme |
| It’s an appalling blot on our society. It stifles the very abilities that’d rationalise the nonsense that it is. | Jim |
| They are only lining their own pockets by their existence and doing harm to our community in the process. | Brian |
| It is only driving our peoples apart cementing further division. | Robyn |
| Ask yourself is it serving the general population well. | Ray |
| Yes! the whole thing has got out of hand. | Mary |
| Our country is being dictated to more and more by the UN, and this race relations farce is only one example. Dame Susan, you were a great squash player, but now you have your snout in the trough of tax-payer funded worthless organisations. Time to dump the NZ Human Rights Act. Our laws already adequately protect Human Rights. | Gifford |
| Awaste of time and $$$!! Akin to thought police”!!! | Andrew |
| One country, one flag, one government, one law, one people. | Hugh |
| The present one doesn’t work!!!! | Frank |
| We are all the same and should be treated the same. | Richard |
| This is another piece of legislation sent to us by the disfunctional United Nations and it over paid representatives who live on another planet. Close it down. | Morrie |
| Total waste of money and far too one sided. | Graham |
| Yes, including the office of Race Relations Commissioner. If all humans have the same rights then why promote division through Maori wards and other legislation favouring race. It beggers belief that any such legislation is going to help promote the rights of humankind other than creating more and more conflict. To do that, all race based legislation needs to be removed as soon as possible. Now that would be promoting human rights – the right for all people to be treated equally. | Folkert |
| It is making us a divided country. | Colin |
| I bet that if in Susan Devoy’s example of quiet racism (the woman enrolling students smiling only at white people) it was instead a dark skinned person smiling only at ‘brown’ people she and the rest of her ilk would not see it as a problem. | Alan |
| It is being used as a tool to divide society and has passed its use by date. | Ray |
| In voting to abolish the NZ Human Rights Act, I assume I am now regarded by the above as a racist? | Cliff |
| Absolutely it should be abolished – it causes far to much division in NZ and creates far too many victims. People need to learn to toughen up. | Roger |
| The last thing we need in NZ is for the United Nations to tell us what to do. Their dopey laws cause far more harm than good. | Darren |
| Any organisation that promotes that dreadful Delaration of Indigenous People should be abolished! | Amy |
| What a great speech Lindsay gave – and yes the HRC should be abolished and with it the Race Relations Commissioner. We have plenty of other laws to protect the vulnerable. | Paul |
| The UN has done so much harm to NZ – from their smart growth ideology causing the housing crisis to their fabricated global warming claims, to all this human rights nonsense. The less we have to do with them the better! | Brian |