Tim Tenbensel & Monique Jonas
The government’s recent directive that public services should be prioritised “on the basis of need, not race” will make it harder and more time consuming to reach New Zealanders with higher needs.
Focused on ethnicity, the directive failed to recognise that many “proxies” for need – such as age, gender, rural location and income – are routinely used in New Zealand and elsewhere to allocate resources.
And this policy goes against substantial evidence that ethnicity is, in fact, a suitable way to identify need.