Belinda Loring, Papaarangi Reid, Elana Curtis, Melissa McLeod, Ricci Harris, Rhys Jones
Last week, the Cabinet Office released a circular to all government organisations. The document communicates a key commitment in the coalition agreement:
“That it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race.”
The term “race” originates from a long-discredited presumption of a biological hierarchy of human beings from white to black, and for decades the New Zealand health system has instead used “ethnicity”.
This return to discredited terminology suggests that the foundations of white superiority are still alive and well in New Zealand today.