Peter Williams: Is this really our country?

The line on the official Parliament website is stark.

“Te ao Maori competencies and approaches are key considerations in our recruitment practices.”

This is not a stock exchange listed or privately held company, or a small or medium sized enterprise. It is the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives. They are the organisations which administer our Parliament to ensure its smooth operation in the interests of every citizen and resident of this nation.

Yet here, buried deep in an extraordinary document called “He Ao Takitaki: The stars that guide us” is a staff hiring policy which says that unless you have competencies in te ao Maori and an approach to life through te ao Maori you’re unlikely to get a job at Parliament.

It is discriminatory and therefore illegal.

Section 21 of the Human Rights Act prohibits discrimination on the grounds of, among other things, ethnic or national origins, race, religious belief or ethical belief.

That could hardly be clearer. Yet this recruitment policy disregards those four grounds completely.

Despite the Coalition Agreement between National and New Zealand First saying that a Cabinet Office circular will be issued “to all central government organisations that it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need not race” here is the most central of central government organisations prioritising Maori thinking as the key to getting a job at Parliament.

The Coalition Agreement between National and Act says exactly the same, adding that the Cabinet Office circular to all central government organisations would be issued within the first six months of Government.

If that was done then the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk of the House of Representatives have ignored it.

Why ?

And what are the politicians going to do about it?

The He Ao Takitaki document makes for quite extraordinary reading to anyone with a secular outlook on life, and a belief system that all people are equal before the law and all have equal rights in our country.

Here’s a few quotes - bearing in mind much of this document is written in te reo.

One of the shared goals we have across the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk is to be a workplace where our people feel comfortable engaging with te reo Maori and tikanga Maori and have a solid understanding of te Tiriti o Waitangi.

While the Parliamentary Service and the Office of the Clerk are already doing lots of mahi in this space we acknowledge that we need to weave more of te ao Maori into who we are as organisations. This will benefit our people, our work, our relationships, our Parliament and the people of Aotearoa more generally.

He ao Takitaki has three focus areas: our people, our places and our relationships. These will become our guiding stars Matariki, Mahutonga and Te Atu a Maui who will help steer us on our journey. By focusing on our people, our places and our relationships we will set the course for future generations at Parliament to build on and continue this important Kaupapa. We acknowledge and understand there is no endpoint to ao Maori.

The document is filled with over twenty pages of such psycho-babble.

If it’s of any consolation, the United States has similar issues. But politicians there are doing something about it.

The new Assistant Attorney-General for the Civil Rights Division at the Department of Justice Harmeet Dhillon, a political appointment by Donald Trump, is probing the city of Chicago after Mayor Brandon Johnson proudly highlighted the number of appointed black officials in his administration. They include his three deputy mayors, his chief operations officer, budget director and senior advisor.

Ms Dhillon is also dealing with recalcitrant lawyers at the Department of Justice. Between Trump’s inauguration in January and this month an estimated 250 attorneys in the Civil Rights Division resigned.

“There were career lawyers there who were doing the same thing, no matter who is the president. Suddenly, their little fiefdom that had remained untouched, was suddenly having to be responsive to elections” she told the Tucker Carlson podcast.

Trump’s anti-discrimination and anti-DEI agenda had been the catalyst for hundreds of lawyers to quit. “They weren’t going to be able to do (their pet projects) the way they wanted” Dhillon said.

We need a Harmeet Dhillon-like politician or public servant to ensure the designated duration of He Ao Takitaki which is 2022 to 2025 ends this year and is not renewed.

This country must offer equality of employment opportunity everywhere, especially at Parliament.

If te ao Maori competencies and approaches continue to be key considerations in recruitment practices at Parliament, and across the wider Public Service, I fear for the future of this land.

Peter Williams was a writer and broadcaster for half a century. Now watching from the sidelines. Peter blogs regularly on Peter’s Substack - where this article was sourced.