Hence, it was interesting that last week New Zealand First chose to enter a Bill in the member’s Bill ballot which intends to amend the Public Service Act 2020 to eliminate references to diversity, equity and inclusion.
The proposal should have come as no surprise. The so-called "war on woke" is New Zealand First policy, and its coalition agreement with National includes a whole section on equal citizenship.
What was interesting was that the Bill, in the name of Andy Foster, was very publicly placed in the ballot the day after Phil Goff was sacked as New Zealand’s High Commissioner to London for making public comments widely interpreted as questioning the wisdom of US president Donald Trump’s foreign policy.
Adding to the layers of this, NZ First leader, and Foreign Minister Winston Peters, announced yesterday that he was going to hop on a plane later this week for a visit to the United States, which will include a sit-down with Secretary of State Marco Rubio, among other important engagements.
We have already editorialised that Mr Goff’s statement, while eminently reasonable and supportable, was not one which a diplomat should have been making, hence his dismissal, while regrettable, was unavoidable.
This is a delicate time for US-New Zealand relations, and for our economic relations in particular. Mr Trump has been levying tariffs on imported goods left, right and centre, and then just as capriciously suspending or removing them again.
In the year ending March 2024 exports from New Zealand to the US reached $14.6 billion, meaning the US supplanted Australia as this country’s second-largest export market. The return of tourism to near pre-Covid levels was a major driver of that growth, but so was notable growth in dairy (23%) and red meat (15%) sales to the US.
While it would be easy to brush off Mr Goff’s comments as something that would never reach Mr Trump’s ears and inspire his wrath, it is more than a little difficult to judge what bright light might distract the US president today. And if by chance Mr Trump did want to make an example of New Zealand, maybe Mr Foster’s Bill might offer some form of amelioration.
While Mr Peters has long been an opponent of "woke", Mr Trump is in the midst of a war upon it, having issued executive orders to wind back decades-long affirmative action and diversity programmes in the federal government and encouraging the private sector to follow suit.
These have had unfortunate and unexpected consequences: for example, it was reported by the Associated Press last week that a purge on words like "black" and "gay" in a database of US defence force images had meant images of the Enola Gay (the plane which dropped the first atomic bomb) and the Tuskegee airmen (a ground-breaking World War 2 black aviation unit) were scheduled for deletion.
Mr Foster’s proposals (which are not a government measure and will need to be drawn from Parliament’s famed "biscuit tin" used for member’s Bill ballots before standing any chance of being debated) are not so sweeping.
The public service would be told to remove existing legislative requirements to develop a workforce that reflects the diversity of the society that it serves, delete clauses requiring boards or chief executives to promote diversity and inclusiveness and recognise the need for greater involvement of Māori in the public service.
Mr Peters argues that New Zealand is a country founded on meritocracy "not on some mind-numbingly stupid ideology”, and that the public service should "not to be a breeding ground for identity politics."
Others would contend that a public service which reflects the New Zealand population it serves is a desirable thing, that a diverse and inclusive public sector benefits all, and that it leads to better policy and stronger decision-making. Certainly, similar arguments were advanced by New Zealand First MPs when their party voted for the Public Service Act 2020.
But there is a wholly different coalition in charge now, and the times they are a changing. This week the timing dictates that the "war on woke" should be front and centre, but history will decide if going on the attack was justified.
