Are New Zealand Employers Racist?

Yik Kun Heng won't be called John

Watch this video about a very personable New Zealand man of Malaysian descent, Yik Kun Heng, who is unable to find a job because of his Chinese sounding name.

Racism is the “ugly face of racism in New Zealand today” and kiwis still have a lot to learn about personal race relations”

All of his classmates with European sounding names have secured good jobs, but 170 job applications and three University degrees later, he’s been advised by his careers officer to change his name to something English sounding like “John” if he wants to do the same.

Yik has refused to do this, having a strong sense of personal identity and integrity.

The only work he’s been able to find is basic admin support for a Telco – far removed from his post graduate qualifications in political science. He is so ‘fed up’ that he has decided to go back to Asia after calling New Zealand home for the last 22 years, another talented and skilled migrant who may’ve contributed so much will be lost to New Zealand. No wonder the country is being left behind.

When asked what he will tell people from abroad about New Zealand, he says:

“New Zealand is an amazing country, BUT in terms of the employment side they have to be really prepared to make the tough decisions on how much they’re willing to give up or how much they’re willing to sell because of the racism“

Emigrating to New Zealand from an Asian country, or planning to study there with a view to applying for residency when you graduate? This video is for you.

Video Link - Are New Zealand Employers Racist?

Prof. Paul Spoonley, mentionedin our other blog below, also appears in the studio discussion in the video. He is “Regional Director (Auckland) and Research Director for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences, Massey University.

He is project leader for the FRST-funded Integration of Immigrants Programme. He is past Chair of the Management Group for the Building Research Capability in the Social Sciences (BRCSS) Network. He is the author or editor of 25 books on topics such as ethnic relations and identity, political extremism and employment.” source

Human Rights Commission

The Human Rights Commission receives, on average, 472 complaints about racial discrimination, incitement and harassment each year.

Race complaints regarding employment are the most frequent and Asians are the most common target.

Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said if you marginalise a community you are only hurting yourself.

“If people are employed below their level of qualifications then that is a loss to the economy. If they’re not employed at all, that is a loss to the economy.” source

You may also be interested in our other blog:

Migrants Changing Names To Get Jobs (April 2010)

Lincoln Tan has written another excellent article about the problems that migrants are having finding work in New Zealand during the present tough economic climate.

According to Mr Tan an academic says that businesses often eliminate Asian sounding applicants at a very early stage in the interview selection process.

Surely that is racial discrimination?:

“Desperate job-seeking Asians are not only taking on Anglicised first names but also officially ditching their traditional surnames for European-sounding ones in the hope that will help them find work in New Zealand.

One Chinese woman even changed her name to Brenda Jones in an attempt to get a job interview in the tough economic climate.

About 21,000, or 9.2 per cent, of the Asian population are without jobs, and experts say their foreign-sounding names have contributed to their unemployment woes.

Massey University researcher Paul Spoonley says New Zealand employers, especially in small and medium-sized businesses, tend to eliminate Asian applicants very early in the process through surname discrimination…”

…Woman had been advised by Work and Income to change her last name to make herself more employable:

“[A migrant] who changed her surname from Teoh to May with an English first name, said a job interviewer at Work and Income advised her to do so.

She told me that with an Asian surname, employers will automatically think that I cannot speak English,” said Miss May, a former retail manager.

A University of Auckland School of Business survey in 2005 found anti-Asian discrimination to be significant among employers.

It found that even without immigration status consideration, having a Chinese or Indian name significantly raised chances of being considered unsuitable…”

But migrants have to pass English Language tests before being granted work visas so where does this ‘perception’ come from that they can’t speak English, or is there another reason for weeding out people… ?

read on

Also see

Singaporenewsalternative.blogspot.com: Asians-ditch-identities-in-hunt-for

Amnesty International Report, Human Rights Eroding in New Zealand

Press release by Amnesty International, NZ 13 May 2011

“As the global human rights revolution stands at the threshold of historic change, New Zealand’s own record is being eroded as the Government fails to address the country’s most pressing human rights issues, says Amnesty International as it launches its annual assessment of human rights worldwide on the eve of its 50th anniversary.

“We are witnessing unprecedented levels of human rights change as protests for freedom and justice spread like wildfire across the Middle East and North Africa. While our Government has been supportive of these promising changes, its failure to live up to our own human rights obligations smacks of hypocrisy” says Patrick Holmes, Chief Executive Officer of Amnesty International Aotearoa NZ.

Amnesty International Report 2011: State of the World’s Human Rights documents abuses in 157 countries around the world during 2010. New Zealand is not exempt from criticism, as the report cites allegations of complicity in torture, indigenous rights, and the rights of refugees and asylum seekers as areas of concern.

• In August, Defence Minister Wayne Mapp confirmed there was a risk the NZSAS had been involved in the transfer of detainees to torture in Afghanistan and that he had launched an investigation. Nine months later, and despite mounting fresh evidence and allegations, the Government has not released the findings of its investigation despite promising to do so and has refused to agree to an independent investigation.

• Amnesty welcomed the Government’s support for the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples in April and the repeal of the Foreshore and Seabed Act in 2011, but concerns remain that its replacement has largely the same discriminatory impact.

• In November the Immigration Act came into effect, allowing for the extension of the detention period of refugees and asylum-seekers without warrant, lacking an explicit guarantee against the detention of children and prevents asylum applicants from access to judicial review.

• The Government has failed to formally safeguard human rights for all New Zealanders by continuing to refuse to legally entrench the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act, allowing for the possible enactment of legislation that could be inconsistent with its provisions. The Act also fails to give legal recognition to economic, social and cultural rights.

“In the 50 years since Amnesty International was born, there has been a massive cultural, social and political shift that has transformed the call for human rights into a truly global demand,” says Holmes.

“New Zealanders should be proud to stand up as a nation with a firm commitment to human rights. Throughout our history we have championed many of the world’s most notable human rights achievements – we were the first country to grant universal suffrage, we were a strong campaigner for human rights at the formation of the United Nations, and we promoted a global moratorium against the use of the death penalty.”

“But if we are to continue to lead by example, we must call on our Government to ensure that fundamental human rights are not trampled for political gain,” says Holmes.”

The country reports may be viewed here on Scoop.co.nz

When Is A Chase Not A Chase?

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When it’s a flee.

Or rather, a chase is not a chase, neither may it be called a pursuit.

In New Zealand its been re-branded “fleeing.”

Leaving aside the obvious grammatical difficulties this will cause, its little more than a game of semantics when the outcomes of a police pursuit policy twenty years out of date are the same – 16 people dead after 11 police chases so far this year.

Police have been told to stop using the words “pursuit” or “chase” and instead refer to “fleeing drivers” in media communications.

The change in terminology was a recommendation from a review this year of police pursuit policy and intended to clearly convey who was responsible for the chases.

Southern police district road policing manager Inspector Andrew Burns said the change was a national policy introduced about six weeks ago, the Otago Daily Times reported.

Debate over the police policy has escalated this year with 16 people dead after 11 police chases, the worst toll on record.

The previous highest annual total was six deaths, in 2008.

The review found there was not enough evidence to support banning police chases but instead recommended more training for staff, limiting the number of vehicles involved and abandoning pursuits once an offender’s identity was known. (NZPA report)

In September this appeared in the Herald

“An international expert in police pursuits says New Zealand’s policy which enables high-speed chases for minor offences is 20 years out of date. A police review of pursuit policy this year – the fourth in six years – ignored key recommendations of the Independent Police Conduct Authority (IPCA) and made only minor changes.”

“Road safety campaigner, the Candor Trust, says police pursuits have increased five-fold in the past seven years to 2500 last year.” read the full report in the NZ Herald

Update 5 December 2010

A least one news outlet has decided to ignore the instruction and ‘call a spade a spade.’

The NZPA article “Fatal crash after police pursuit in Auckland“

One man is dead and another in critical condition after a car crashed following a high speed police chase in south Auckland last night.

The crash happened at about 11.20pm on Kirkbride Road in the suburb of Mangere after a high speed chase reaching speeds of “well over 100kmh”, a police spokesman said.
The car crashed approximately 30 seconds after a police car began chasing the allegedly speeding vehicle, the spokesman said…” read the full report here

The driver died and the passenger was seriously injured in the chase. This brings the number of deaths in police pursuits in New Zealand to 17 so far this year.

The NZPA report also mentioned that on Friday police were cleared of blame over two separate pursuits that resulted in the deaths of three people earlier this year and that

The Independent Police Conduct Authority found no aspect of police officers’ conduct could be faulted over the deaths of Steven John Gorrie and in Dome Valley, near Warkworth, north of Auckland, on April 4 and Ricky Allan Forbes near Murchison, 130km southwest of Nelson, on February 21.

For more about police and crime read our Crime facts and stats page, all links open in a new window.

For more about media restrictions on the reporting of crime see our Hype, Spin and Restrictions on Freedom of Information page and our blog

No crime in Gisborne – it’s official:

See also - Teen arrested for fleeing police

No Crime In Gisborne, It’s Offical – Updates.

Restrictions on the reporting of crime in Gisborne, NZ

25 July 2010 (scroll down for updates & keep checking back)

Remember how the Palmerston North Wikipedia page was censored to remove references to crime because it making overseas investors and professionals shy away from moving to the town?;  and of how gangs are now euphemistically  called “groups” in some news reports?;  and how no police statistics are kept on racially motivated crimes in New Zealand?  Well now the police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?

Don’t the public have a right to know what is going on in their own town and the actions their public servants are taking to control that crime?

What if similar decisions were taken elsewhere in the country? (it’s already been happening in Rotorua) you can kiss goodbye to a free press in New Zealand and say hello to a propaganda mouthpiece, covering nothing but cake sales and ‘feel good’ stories.

From the Gisborne Herald’s website:

Crime? What crime?

Christine McCafferty 24 July 2010

GISBORNE police have decided to restrict the information on crime they provide to media in a move to “make the community feel safer”.

Up until now, The Gisborne Herald has been given detailed reports of crimes attended by police, including burglaries, domestic violence and the arrests that make up our daily “Police briefs”.

But earlier this week area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama said comprehensive information would no longer be provided. He saw no benefit in “reporting all and sundry”…read the whole article here

Related NZ State v. NZ Press stories:

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke - “MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…”

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Update 1.  29 July 2010

Gisborne police have tried to defend their new “media policy”. You can read their response in this article which appeared on Stuff. In it we learn of two very interesting pieces of information:

1. The Gisborne Herald was one of the last daily newspapers in the country to receive detailed lists from the police, according to Gisborne area commander Inspector Sam Aberahama; as repeated on Stuff. (No wonder our figures on reported armed robberies doesn’t tally-up with the official statistics)

So many newspapers went quietly into that goodnight! only the Gisborne Herald  was prepared to take a stand and we appreciate why now – that was the last stand of NZ’s free press.

2. That Police Minister, Judith Collins, thought that media reports on police conduct and other issues had contributed to a lack of respect for police. Which makes the police’s decision to withhold what it chooses from the media look even more questionable.

The Media Freedom Committee had their say on the issue too. We get the impression that this has been brewing under the surface for a while and now was an ideal opportunity to remove the cover on the whole sorry mess. You can read their chairman’s comments on Voxy, but this one comment from him struck us as odd:

“The Media Freedom Committee welcomes an assurance from Police National Headquarters that the Gisborne policy is a one-off and is not about to spread to other parts of the country.”

Which is rather different to what was said by the Gisborne Area Commander in the Stuff article. i.e. that Gisborne was one of the last daily newspapers to receive detailed lists.

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Update 2.  30 July 2010

The Sensible Sentencing Trust released a statement today saying that police held in their own hands the solution to stopping attacks on officers, in response to matters raised by the Police Minister at yesterday’s press conference:

Firstly, that police conduct should be beyond reproach and secondly, that police should be helping families to intervene in illicit drug use before that person gets hurt – specifically mentioning the failure of the  “P Plan” to deal effectively with methamphetamine demand in the community. Read the full statement on Scoop.co.nz

Also today, in another article in The Gisborne Herald it has demonstrated that both the local police and the paper are holding their stance on this issue, with the paper saying that there had been some significant crimes in the past week that had not been reported to either the local media or the public. They also said that even before this incident full logs weren’t being supplied to them. Read the full article  HERE

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Update 3. 31 July 2010

The Dom Post yesterday also reported on the police’s ‘media policy’ in an article on Stuff.co.nz that has within in its  URL “Gisborne police defend information blackout” but with a headline of “Gisborne police stand firm on keeping some crime quiet”.

Their coverage is much the same as in other publications but they did publish a rather interesting list of crime figures under the heading:

SPOTLIGHT ON OFFENDED

NZ Police figures for offences per 10,000 people:

which showed that for Eastern District: Gisborne, Napier and Hastings, the figures for serious assaults, alcohol offences, cannabis offences and sexual attacks were well above the national rates :

Serious assaults: 66.8  v. 48.8

Alcohol offences: 52.2 v. 23.2

Cannabis offences: 50.8 v. 35.1

Sexual attacks: 6.8 v. 5.7

The whole Dom Post article may be read HERE

Update 4. 30 July 2010

Read “no notice from police” in the Gisborne Herald for example of how restrictions on reporting of crime have affected people in Gisborne. People are taking it upon themselves to report burglary hotspots to the paper, whilst police have only reported one burglary.

Now, if you were a migrant intending to move to New Zealand looking for a better quality of life wouldn’t  you want to know this information to help you in your decision making process?

Read also:

Venezuelan newspaper, El Nacional,  protests against censorship that prevents it from reporting on violence

“Is New Zealand moving toward a police state by default?”

Is New Zealand Moving Toward A Police State By Default?

A new piece of legislation slipped through, under urgency, into the statute books last month (just in time for the Auckland elections in a few months?)- the Policing (Involvement in Local Authority Elections) Amendment Bill removed restrictions on serving police in New Zealand standing for local body elections.

Now, if they are elected to local government, they are able to continue working as active police officers.  In the past police in New Zealand were required to take leave during the period of their candidature.

With the removal goes the principle that those who are responsible for enforcing the law should not also be the ones making it.

Because the bill was passed under urgency the public had no opportunity to have a say in it. The NZ Green and Maori parties objected to it but were out-voted.

Other commonwealth countries have safeguards in place to ensure there is no mix between law making and law enforcement by servants of the state, for example:

In the UK people are disqualified from local authority elections if

• they are employed by the local authority or hold a paid office under the authority (including joint boards or committees)

• they hold a politically restricted post

• they are the subject of a bankruptcy restrictions order or interim order

• they have been sentenced to a term of imprisonment of three months or more (including a suspended sentence), without the option of a fine, during the five years before election day

• they have been disqualified under Part III of the RPA 1983 (which relates to donations and other offences) or under the Audit Commission Act 199831

As the legislation now stands there is nothing to prevent police from forming their own political party in New Zealand, and who knows – maybe even standing in national government elections in the future. Did that consequence even remotely occur to those who voted for the bill?

The Search and Surveillance Bill goes AWOL

The above bill has been sent back for re-drafting following a great deal of confusion and concern over the powers that it will extend. It should re-emerge in a new version in July, or August.

Only those who commented on the original draft will be permitted to make submissions on the new version and wonders what has happened to the Democratic Process.

The Campaign to Stop the Search and Surveillance Bill strongly objects to the New Zealand public being locked out of the bill and in a release on the Aotearoa Independent Media Centre website their spokesman said (emphasis ours):

“We wish to be given assurances that new voices will be able to be heard through the submission process and that there will be plenty of time for the people to be heard before the bill returns for its second reading,” Mr Hales said.

The past several years in New Zealand have seen our basic freedoms in this country drastically eroded by new legislation, with the Search and  Surveillance bill being the latest in a series of draconian legislation that all New Zealanders should be concerned about. The Campaign to Stop the Search and Surveillance Bill believes that security does not come from surveillance and unchecked power but from a free and tolerant society. We do not want new powers of search or surveillance extended to the police or other agencies.

We put all the parliamentarians on notice that we are watching you and watching this bill.” read the full press release on the AIMC here

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Other information you might find interesting:

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Animal rights campaigners tracked - 1 August 2010

An animals rights campaigner is pictured in a newspaper with a tracking device she found attached to her car. The Sunday Star Times alleges that this is the third time in three years that they have “caught Thompson & Clark Investigations doing covert surveillance on political groups for corporate clients.” The political campaigner told the paper she believed the  company had been engaged by the Pork Industry Board. Read the full report HERE

Anti-terror squad spies on protest groups – 2008

An article on Stuff detailing the types of protest groups that are under surveillance in New Zealand.

No Crime in Gisborne, it’s Official - 25 July 2010

“Police in Gisborne want to restrict the information released to the media and give the people in the town the warm and fuzzies.

The question is Is ignorance bliss, or are there other motives for clamming-up about the true extent and nature of crime in Gisborne? It smacks of censorship to us and history has proved that has never been a good thing. Surely it is preferable to create a safer, low crime community rather than mislead people into thinking that it is?”  read more in the Gisborne Herald

Police Minister infuriated at newspaper’s test of security at Super 14s match – reporters testing security at a rugby match weren’t pretending to be terrorists.

It’s official: Politicians can’t take a joke -

“MPs may make fools of themselves from time to time but they want to ban others from doing it. Satire, ridicule and denigration of MPs using any television footage shot from parliamentary galleries is to be banned under rules proposed by the standing orders committee. The move on freedom of expression is not the only controversy the rules have caused. They also create anomalies between what television cameras can show and what newspapers photographers are allowed to show, giving television the advantage…” read more in the Herald

Palmerston North’s Wikipedia page censored -Palmerston North’s page was edited to remove reference to gang violence and crime because overseas investors and professionals were shying away from the city.

The number of recorded violent crimes in Palmy’s City Area increased from 787 in 1999 to 1093 in 2008, and from 794 to 1145 in the rural area. That’s an overall increase in violent crime for the two areas combined of around 40 %. During that same period figures for other crimes had pretty much stayed the same, some had even declined (property abuse, drugs and antisocial)

So is rising violent crime an issue in Palmy? You decide.

Read also our “Armed Offender Squad and Armed Police Incidents” page.