New Zealand’s ACT Party Indian-origin MP Dr Parmjeet Parmar has slammed the University of Auckland over what she claims is a racially discriminatory job listing that prioritises Māori applicants for an engineering internship, warning that such practices breach New Zealand’s Human Rights Act.
Taking to Facebook, Dr Parmar criticised a summer internship programme which states that applicants of Māori, Pasifika, Aboriginal, or Torres Strait Islander descent would be fast-tracked directly to the interview stage. “We must not let the rot that is so pervasive in our public institutions spread into the private sector,” she wrote.
“This is discrimination,” Parmar stated in a formal letter to the university’s Vice-Chancellor, Professor Dawn Freshwater, alleging that the job listing could violate sections 22 and 23 of the Human Rights Act 1993, which prohibit discrimination based on race in employment matters.
The role in question is part of the ‘Kaihōpara Raukura – Māori Graduate Programme’ and includes wording that applicants “will whakapapa Māori / be of Māori descent.” ACT says such hiring conditions are “unacceptable” and reflect a broader culture of racial division fuelled by New Zealand’s academic institutions.
“Universities in particular are fuelling these corrosive ideas,” Parmar said, accusing them of training future HR managers to value ancestry over ability, character or contribution. “Race-based hiring, in any sector, is wrong. The ACT Party will keep fighting to stop this rot from spreading any further.”
Dr Parmar’s criticism follows the Government’s removal last year of race-based procurement rules, including an 8% quota for contracts awarded to Māori-owned businesses. She now calls for local councils and universities to follow suit and abandon similar requirements.
“Businesses need to get the memo that they no longer need to engage in identity politics to secure Government contracts,” she said, urging the university to immediately revise the job description and ensure future listings comply with legal and ethical standards.
The University of Auckland has not yet publicly responded to Dr Parmar’s letter.
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