Ethnic leaders call for more resources for better social cohesion
Photo:
Supplied
Ethnic leaders are calling for more resources to tackle issues such as social cohesion and health disparities at a meeting with opposition leader Chris Hipkins in Auckland on Friday.
Representatives from the National Ethnic and Faith Community Leaders Network attended the meeting, with the Labour Party's ethnic communities spokesperson Jenny Salesa also present.
After the event that was closed to media, Hipkins said they've discussed issues concerning the general public, such as employment, health, homes and cost of living, as well as these specific to migrant and religious communities, such as immigration.
He said life has become tougher for the ethnic communities since
he met the same group
last year.
"Issues around the cost of living have gotten worse. I think issues around polarisation continue to be a real area of concern when I speak to our community," he said.
"More tension within the communities and more overt displays of racism within the communities are something I'm very concerned about."
Hipkins said "the many faces of our community" needed to be reflected in the way services were being delivered such as health and education.
When asked what would he do about the problems, Hipkins said it would be reflected in the Labour Party's policies before the next election.
"Part of the reason that we're here is that we want to make sure that we're listening to New Zealanders as we develop our policies," he said.
Dame Ranjna Patel, Chris Hipkins, and the Labour Party's ethnic communities spokesperson Jenny Salesa.
Photo:
Supplied
Social cohesion was a topic that concerned Dame Ranjna Patel the most.
"The social cohesion in the ethnic community and mainstream is very divided at the moment, and it's just progressively getting louder and more of a problem," she said.
Patel said the differences of all the ethnic communities are so wide and groups should come together for solutions.
"We do need to work together to give bite size problems with bite size solutions, not just say this is a issue, fix it. It's too hard for every government to do. We have to have a budget that lets us do that," she said.
"To get communities to develop themselves to be able to deal with these, we'll need a lot more resources."
Debbie Chin, president of the New Zealand Chinese Association's Wellington branch.
Photo:
RNZ / Liu Chen
New Zealand Chinese Association's Wellington branch president Debbie Chin's area of focus was the health of wellbeing of Asian New Zealanders.
"We're looking for improved access to services for our Chinese and Asian communities," Chin said. "That means that we need services that meet the needs of our population, and we also need to have providers who can... understand our culture."
"We need diversification across all of those areas, across service delivery, cross workforce, cross funding and commissioning and the people in the decision making seats."
Chin pointed to a recent report which found that
almost half of Asian parents said their children have been bullied at school
in the past 12 months often associated with racism.
"I hope [the government] will put investment in to ensure that our people are not bullied and that the children understand that's not acceptable and that we build inclusion and social cohesion across our community, in our workplaces and in our schools," she said.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero
,
a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
16 minutes ago
- RNZ News
Tāmaki Makaurau: By-election:Peeni Henare
On September 6 the Tāmaki Makaurau by-election will be held. It was triggered by the passing of Takutai Tarsh Kemp of Te Pāti Māori. She beat Labour's Peeni Henare by only 42 votes in 2023 - and he is back to contest the seat along with former broadcaster Oriini Kaipara, Vision New Zealand's Hannah Tamaki, Sherry-Lee Matene as an independent and New Zealand Loyal's Kelvyn Alp. Peeni Henare speaks to Mihingarangi about his vision for the electorate. Oriini Kaipara (left) and Peeni Henare. Photo: YouTube / Newshub, RNZ / Angus Dreaver
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
Ban on protesting outside homes rebalances freedom of expression and privacy rights
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith has announced protesting outside someone's home will become an offence. Photo: RNZ / Mark Papalii The government's ban on protesting outside someone's home will rebalance the right to freedom of expression and the right to privacy, a law professor says. But another academic has questioned whether a new law is necessary, and says police may struggle to enforce it. Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith announced on Friday protesting outside someone's home would become an offence, punishable with a fine or jail time. While it would apply to all residences, Goldsmith said there had been increased reports of demonstrations targeting the homes of public figures like MPs, judges and other officials. Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis said current laws around protests only related to public settings. "Protests that take place outside someone's home really do intrude into a sort of domestic sphere where people usually feel they should be able to exist unperturbed and unthreatened," he said. "So this particular change in the law will help to restrike that balance." Otago University law professor Andrew Geddis. Photo: RNZ / Cole Eastham-Farrelly Geddis said the change would plug a legal gap highlighted by a Supreme Court ruling nearly two decades ago. The 2007 case, Brooker v Police, involved a man who was convicted of disorderly behaviour for standing outside a police officer's house playing the guitar and singing protest songs against her, he said. But the Supreme Court found his behaviour was not disorderly. "The Supreme Court said that disorderly behaviour only applies to the public consequences of your behaviour, how that affects the public place. "And just because it's intruding into someone's private home, that's not a consideration as to whether the protest is covered by disorderly behaviour," he said. It meant the balance between people's rights within their home and people's rights to protest in public was "out of whack", Geddis said. One of the judges noted the court's finding could lead to more protests outside people's homes, and Parliament would need to consider that at some point, he said. "It turns out he was right." Victoria University law professor Steven Price said police may find it hard to enforce the new law. Goldsmith said it would be tightly targeted and prohibit "unreasonable disruptions", but Price said the independent police watchdog's review of policing protests found officers struggled to make a call on that. "What the IPCA had to say about that ... is that police have trouble on the ground having to make fine distinctions about what's an unreasonable disruption and what's not, and that seems a fair point to make," he said. "But on the face of [Goldsmith's] press release, it doesn't really solve the problem." Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
RNZ News
2 hours ago
- RNZ News
International partners out of Forum Leaders Summit
It's now confirmed! No external partners have been invited to the Pacific Leaders meeting in Solomon Islands.
