Debate

Team Research for Debate:

Why is New Zealand not an equal country?

Racial Perspective Research -

-Many people call New Zealand their home no matter what background. people feel that new Zealand has given them a new opportunity to adjust and fit in how ever. it is rare to see someone say this without that extra ‘but’ …

-Despite being born and raised in New Zealand. If you originally come from a different culture/ look differently/ dress differently you will always get a double glance and be judged. This small action removes any sense of equality in NZ

Racial discrimination in New Zealand affect people in many areas from schools, to working areas to practically everyday life.

In early 2016 Newlands College theatrical production Hairspray casted high school students based on race not ethnicity. Small action Big impact. A clear example of stud

-“The fact that Maori are so underprivileged, compared to most other people in New Zealand, is an economic issue, an issue of resources.” http://thewireless.co.nz/themes/value/egali-what-getting-a-fair-go-in-new-zealand

-“In saying this, Maori are not the only ethnic group who have experienced forms of discrimination. Immigrants from many countries have chosen to settle and contribute to New Zealand’s society. However, it was only in the 1970s and 1980s that our immigration policy stopped favouring European descendants and began accepting immigrants on the basis of skills, financial assets and family relationships”

-“Contemporary research on racial equality indicates there are still significant ethnic imbalances. Maori, as mentioned, continue to be disadvantaged and discriminated against alongside other ethnic groups (Chinese, Korean, African, and Indian). Importantly, it has been shown that perceived discrimination can lead to negative effects such as stress, poor self and group esteem, impaired health and anti-social behaviours.”

-”As New Zealanders, if we aim to achieve a successful bicultural and multicultural national identity, we need to reassess our perspectives.”

-“Secondly, as New Zealanders we need to appreciate and respect other immigrants and encourage their integration into New Zealand. We can do this by nurturing their participation in our society and accepting the maintenance of their own heritage cultures.”

-”If we follow these considerations, we will be working towards what is termed a “super-ordinate National Identity” where, regardless of your ethnic background, you can still consider yourself part of New Zealand its cultural identity. This will lead to increased harmonious ethnic relations and a more tolerant society.”

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr/about-us/diversity-issues/is-new-zealand-an-equal-society

-“The study was based on the postal survey of 302 New Zealanders drawn from the electoral rolls. The results also showed that 44% of the respondents believed that Muslim immigrants increase the threat of terrorism in this country and 44% said that they would not want a mosque in their neighbourhood”

http://www.victoria.ac.nz/cacr/about-us/diversity-issues/muslims-in-new-zealand

For some, inequality is fundamentally unfair: when people receive a different reward for their work, there must be something wrong. There simple actions are concerning in terms of inequality.

When a society is unequal, it is less functional, less cohesive and less healthy than their more equal counterparts. The damage inequality does falls under five headings: trust and cohesion; health; opportunities; open politics; and the economy.

When it comes to trust and cohesion, in an unequal society, people lose touch with how ‘the other half’ lives.  Growing income imbalances breed distrust and eat away at the bonds between people, weakening our sense of each other’s lives and our ability to pull together to tackle difficult problems.

Gender research perspective:

Even though New Zealand was “the first country to give women the right to vote in 1893”, and be one of the “first countries to have a woman as prime minister” (1999 Helen Clark) it seems that nowadays people still need to state those facts to prove a point about gender equality when bigger issues are being undermined.

The universal declaration of human and civil rights states “men are born and remain free and equal in rights” yet it has never been the case for women.

-          Before the 1960s women were expected to be wives, mothers and homemakers, abortion was illegal, and divorcing your husbands was near impossible. Rape in Marriage was not even recognized as a crime up until 1985.

-          Before the 19th century women did not even receive an education and even in during the 20th century women were only taught home sciences ( cooking, cleaning, sewing)

-          It was not up until the end of the 19th century and more precisely 1893 that women were given the right to vote in New Zealand, even now a days the ratio of men to women in the New Zealand parliament is 69 to 31, as of 2014, this is not representative of the population, this has been an issue for decades.

-          However Politics is not the only issue here. A gender pay gap is noticeable too. In 2015 the pay gap between men and women based on hourly earnings was of 11.8%.

-          In 2014 a survey showed that women earned $300 less per week than men and also had lower lifetime incomes compared to men.

-           This is partly due to an unconscious bias. Stereotypical views on gender roles and about what women can and cannot do have had a strong negative influence on women’s careers in the workforce. ( women have for a long time worked low paid jobs ).

-          All these inequalities have and are limiting women’s role in society.

Gender inequality in New Zealand – Inequality in New Zealand

-     Results from the Human Rights Commission’s Tracking Equality at Work report are shameful and show we need to do more to help women in the workplace, says the National Council of Women of New Zealand National President Rae Duff.

-     The report shows women have higher unemployment and underemployment than men. Woman are underrepresented in leadership roles in the public and private sectors, and make up two thirds of those earning the minimum wages.

- “It’s not good enough that the representation of women in senior management positions in the private sector has sharply declined, from 31 per cent in 2014 to 19 per cent in 2015. Women’s representation on private sector boards also lags and sits at 14.4 per cent.

- Pacific and Māori women are paid less per hour than European women, and disabled women have lower incomes than disabled men. This is a shame on our country and we need to reduce these inequalities for the sake of these individuals, their families and communities and for our economy.

- “It is alarming that around two thirds of minimum wage earners over 25 years are women, which reflects the critical work that needs to be done to get equal pay for work of equal value and for more women to enter a wider range of professions and attain more senior roles.

- “On the positive, there does seem to be a current upswing in awareness of gender issues and more employers taking action to ensure their policies and practices around recruitment and promotion, pay and conditions support diversity in the workplace. But it’s clearly not enough and more people need to do more.

- Zealand women are among the most educated in the world, a new report shows, but there is a growing gap between economic opportunities for men and women - including their pay packets.

- The World Economic Forum's annual report on the gender gap shows New Zealand has dropped in global rankings from seventh last year to 13th this year.

- The Global Gender Gap Index ranks countries on the gap between men and women on health, education, economic and political indicators. New Zealand has improved or stayed the same on all indicators except for economic participation and opportunities, where the gap has widened. For pay equality, the country ranks 33rd out of 142 countries.

- Dame Jenny Shipley, the country's first female Prime Minister and chairwoman of Global Women NZ, said the report showed there was "so much to do" to reach equality.

- It was "inexcusable" for a woman to graduate from secondary or tertiary education with equal qualifications to a man and enter the workforce, only to be paid less.

- The OECD's Gender Equality in Education, Employment and Entrepreneurship: Final Report also states that Woman in New Zealand do more unpaid work than paid work, gain more tertiary qualifications than men and women-owned new enterprises outperform men-owned enterprises.

- Although wage inequality between men and woman has been slowly dropping, the report finds that the government funding allocated to reduce inequality in New Zealand is on the low side in comparison to other OECD countries.

- So basically woman are getting a raw deal. In fact the gender pay gap in the public sector was 14.4% in 2010. If we include all areas of the workforce, woman on average earn around $10,000 less per year.

Education Points

http://www.metromag.co.nz/city-life/education/24-things-to-know-before-you-choose-a-school/ The metromag nz states that deciles dont matter —  “They reflect nothing more than the income level in the students’ homes: the greater the wealth, the higher the decile.”

deciles are not a measure of quality, and nor do they correlate to any given student’s chance of success. They reflect nothing more than the income level in the students’ homes: the greater the wealth, the higher the decile. A example of this..

Decile 4 Avondale College also produced the top Cambridge exams scholar in the world last year. He won a $100,000 scholarship and will soon be studying at Cambridge University.

New Zealand children do not get fair and equal access to educational opportunities.  Our schools are increasingly separated on socio-economic and ethnic lines.

Gender inequality in New Zealand – Inequality in New Zealand

Many people call New Zealand their home no matter what background. People feel that new Zealand has given them a new opportunity to adjust and fit in how ever. it is rare to see someone say this without that extra ‘but’ …

But despite being born and raised in New Zealand If you originally come from a different culture/ look differently or dress differently you will always get a double glance and be judged. This small action removes any sense of equality in NZ

Points for Rebuttal:

Say this good point

• Its allg to look in the past but we are talking about the 21 century not the 20th century. What are we doing to make NZ equal in the 21st century?

• Point rasied by the first speaker talked about looking at ourselves. Yet compares NZ to other countries. Look at ourselves, what about the rest of NZ. the non designers, the older or younger people im sure. Students are not equal as the amount of money we are entitled to from the government are different amounts of money based on what our parents earn etc etc. Our small voice does have a lot of power but what are we doing with our ‘small voice’ is the question. What are we doing to make NZ equal in the 21st century?

• Comparing health care to the rest of the world, what about just the comparison between 1st world countries, where do we rank in that group?

• This debate is focussed on if New Zealand is an equal society, other countries have different governments and different factors to attribute for.
• Comparing racism to other countries doesn’t make it any better it’s like saying murder in nz is fine because it’s worse in America.