The National Ethnic and Faith Community Leaders Network recently met with the Leader of the Opposition, Rt Hon Chris Hipkins and senior Labour Party spokespersons, Hon Dr. Ayesha Verrall, Hon Ginny Andersen, Hon Willow-Jean Prime, Greg O’Connor, Hon Jenny Salesa and Ingrid Leary at the Centre for Peace and Dialogue in Wellington . This follows their earlier meeting with the Prime Minister, Rt Hon Christopher Luxon.

“Politics should be about bringing people together. It was excellent to meet with representatives from our many ethnic and faith communities to discuss their priorities and issues that we can work through alongside each other,” said Labour Leader, Chris Hipkins.

Abdur Razzaq, convenor of the Leaders Network stated, “the latest census indicated that the ethnic diversity represents at least 17 % of the voting population, and as such it is important that the ethnic and faith narrative is also included in the policies which shape our nation’s future.“

Dajit Singh, from the Combined Sikh Association of NZ commenting on the meeting said , “we had a good opportunity to discuss some of the priority immigration issues impacting on our collective ethnic and faith communities.” Of particular concern was the high immigration fees charged for visiting priests, monks and imams. He also noted that the barriers skilled religious workers face to stay here are set too high and need to be reviewed. Manisha Morar, from the NZ Indian Central Association, reminded that “ the changes recommended by Royal Commission on 15 March have yet to be completed and this is important for all our communities .” “There are significant lessons learned which have not yet been implemented , especially in the area of hate speech and hate crime. “

Robert Hunt, Chair of the New Zealand Buddhist Council suggested that whilst the census indicated that fewer people claimed to have a formal religion,” it is important to highlight that for a significant proportion of the population , their faith and spirituality are central to their lives and their identity”. “Our education system needs to reflect this so that we can all welcome the rich diversity of our nation.”

Anwar Ghani from the Federation of Islamic Association and Paul Patel from the New Zealand Indian Central Association both raised the collective concerns about the rising crime and the need for community-led solutions. “It is not just a matter of tougher laws and sentencing , but also that more follow-up and support is needed for the victims.” Gregory Fortuin of the African Leaders Group emphasized that “to sincerely respect the diversity of our country these discussions must be more than merely” ticking boxes”. We must ensure that the voices of our communities are heard by the Leaders and government officials and more importantly translates into policy. We also need to have effective and on-going engagement to uplift our communities, “he said. Richard Leung, from the New Zealand Chinese Association noted that “communities can often find solutions which are more meaningful and effective” and “ that government officials picking and choosing whom they speak to from the various ethnic communities is inappropriate and can lead to more confusion.”

Debbie Chin also from the NZ Chinese Association presented recent evidence of increasing health disparities and raised awareness of the systemic challenges that ethnic communities face when accessing healthcare services. She stated “there has to be recognition and priority given to address inequities. We now have data which shows that our public health system is disproportionately failing some communities and wanted clear commitments to how these will be addressed. “.

“From our conversations, community leaders made their views clear on the big issues top of mind for their communities today and the outcomes they hope to achieve. It’s important that the voices of ethnic communities are heard and embedded into the decisions we make to take our country forward, as we prepare to be the next government. I want to thank all our community leaders for a greatly productive engagement, and I look forward to continuing these robust conversations again.” said Chris Hipkins.

Concluding the meeting, Abdur Razzaq mentioned that “collectively we have a number of bottom line policy considerations and these were raised with the Labour Party. We also stressed that introducing military style semi- automatic weapons , changes to the arms registry, delays on hate crime legislation and the loosening of the anti-smoking initiatives are all red-flags and will have significant impact on our communities. We hope all political parties are aware of where we stand on these issue when voting time comes”, he said.

National Ethnic and Faith Community Leaders Network

New Zealand Chinese Association
New Zealand Indian Central Association
New Zealand Buddhist Council
Combined Sikh Association of NZ
Federation of Islamic Associations of NZ
African Community Leaders Group

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