The document summarizes significant changes to race relations in New Zealand over the past decade, as addressed by the Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres at the 2012 New Zealand Diversity Forum. Key shifts included increased recognition of indigenous Māori culture and rights, greater diversity in immigration and demographics, the Canterbury earthquakes, and the growth of social media. De Bres highlighted ongoing challenges of countering racial prejudice and inequality, and the importance of continuing work to celebrate diversity, achieve racial equality, foster harmonious relations, and fulfill promises of the Treaty of Waitangi.

1. Address to the 2012 New Zealand Diversity Forum, Aotea Centre, Auckland, 19-20
August.
Joris de Bres, Race Relations Commissioner
Together, over the past ten years, we have witnessed some very significant changes that
have impacted on race relations. There have been some seismic events and
developments that particularly stand out for me.
First, there was 9/11. It occurred a year before I started, but, coupled with an increase in
non-Christian beliefs and immigration, it presented a particular challenge in terms of
tolerance and religious diversity. I believe New Zealanders dealt with that as well as
anyone, if not better. We have not gone down the path of xenophobia and Islamophobia
that is sweeping Europe.
There was also a slow seismic shift in the recognition of Māori, the reinvigoration of the
Treaty settlement process, the use of Te Reo Māori in the public sphere, Māori Television,
working through issues like the foreshore and seabed, water rights - and young people
who have grown up with that. A greater recognition of the indigenous dimension is the new
normal. Some of us just need to catch up.
The third shift is in immigration, and the introduction of the concept of settlement support.
Until this century, immigration largely focused on recruitment. Once, here people were
expected to fend for themselves. Now, arrival is seen as the beginning of a journey, not
the end. And the diversity of our migrants continues to increase.
There has also been a major demographic shift amongst our young. It is now birth, not
migration, that is the driver of demographic change. In the Northern education region 60
per cent of school students are Māori, Pacific and other non-European, 40 per cent are
Pākehā. How they fare in the education system, the community and the workforce will
determine our race relations in the future. If we don't get this right they will desert us for
Australia and elsewhere.
The establishment of the Auckland Supercity is another major shake-up. Auckland is a
qualitatively different community. The question on the table now is how does the new city
reflect and serve its diverse communities, in governance, in services, and in planning. That
is the subject of one of our forums today.
Literally seismic were the Canterbury earthquakes. The impact on the people of that region
has been immense and continues today. The Diversity Forum was held there only two
years ago, in the now demolished Christchurch Convention Centre, two weeks before the
September quake. Today we have forums from people in Canterbury on lessons learnt,
and on communicating with diverse communities in a time of disaster.
The tectonic plates also moved in our rural and provincial areas, with the growth of migrant
labour in dairying, horticulture, viticulture and services, and, therewith, greatly increased
diversity. Yesterday, a forum looked at the treatment of migrant workers, and a new
migrant worker network was launched. Today we also look at migrant workers in the aged
care sector, following on from the recent inquiry by the Human Rights Commission.
And then there was the explosion of the social media. Ten years ago we didn’t have
Facebook, Twitter, smart phone and tablet applications. Communication and networking

2. have been revolutionised. We also look today at the Law Commission’s report and
proposals concerning unacceptable content in the new media.
And then there is the retirement of the baby boomers, like me: a generation that visited
economic liberalism, student fees, and unaffordable housing on our unsuspecting children.
Now we're moving into and through the ranks of retirees.
Toxic advertiser John Ansell, who brought us the iwi versus kiwi campaign for Dr Brash
and the National Party in 2005, and whose anti Treaty ads were rejected even by Dr Brash
and his newly acquired ACT Party in 2011, now wants to try again to return New Zealand
to the past century, on the theme of Treatygate and a colourblind state. He wants a
referendum on "Do we want a colourblind state, a state that doesn't practice racial
favouritism in any way whatsoever?" What a tosser. Fortunately, this time he doesn't have
a political party to support him, and he has turned to bigoted Invercargill businessman
Louis Crimp for the 2 million dollar price tag of the campaign. No political party will touch
him, and even Louis told the Southland Times last week that he gave him a few bob, but
nowhere near the two million dollars he was asking for.
The rest of us are left asking, what sort of bankrupt vision is a colourblind state? To be
colourblind is to be monocultural, monolingual, in denial about racial inequalities, past
injustices and the indigenous dimension of our nation. You cannot treat people the same if
they are different. You cannot ignore the unlevelness of the playing field. For the State to
address disadvantage is not to practice favouritism, but to meet its obligations to enable all
the people to enjoy basic human rights. You cannot ignore the fact New Zealand has
undergone transformational change in the past decade, and that the future cannot be the
same as the past. Rather than be colourblind, we want to embrace our colour, our
ethnicity, and our diversity, settle the injustices of the past and forge a unique national
identity that is appropriate to our place, our region and our century.
The New Zealand Diversity Action Programme, which brings you this forum and to which
so many of you here contribute, has four goals:
 To celebrate our cultural diversity
 To achieve racial equality in the enjoyment of human rights
 To foster harmonious relations between diverse New Zealanders, and
 To fulfil the promise of the Treaty
We have been on that journey together for the first decade of the new century. Some of
the spaces in which we will continue it result from the seismic shifts that have already
occurred:
 The multicultural self governing city of Auckland
 The rebuilding city of Christchurch
 Our rural areas
 Cyberspace
 The spaces occupied and aspired to by young New Zealanders, and
 The realm of the baby boomers who have an opportunity to give something back in
their retirement as Grey Power becomes Flower Power and Rainbow Power, or
Shared Power or Surrendered Power
These are some of the test spaces for race relations in the next decade. There is much
that has been done, there is much to do. The Human Rights Commission’s 2012 Race

3. Relations Report highlighted the continuing challenge of countering racial prejudice, racial
inequality, and exclusion.
It has been a pleasure and an inspiration to work with you all. I will rejoin you as a baby
boomer e -pensioner with nothing better to do than explore some of these spaces and
challenges with you. I plan to be back to sit alongside my predecessors Rajen Prasad and
Gregory Fortuin, who are here today, at future forums as a “former Race Relations
Commissioner”.
Meanwhile, see you on Facebook or Puka Mata.