INDEPENDENT NEWS

Anti-Discrimination Day Disgrace

Published: Fri 21 Mar 2003 11:16 AM
Anti-Discrimination Day Disgrace
Today's celebrations of the international Covenant for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination are deeply insincere - New Zealand has not observed it for years, ACT Justice Spokesman Stephen Franks said today
"The noble intensions and expectations when the Covenant was signed were simple: that race distinctions would become illegitimate, and that all humans would be judged on their individual merits - not the colour of their skin or inherited ethnic status," Mr Franks said.
"New Zealand bound itself to comply, but politicians have since decided that colour-blind law does not suit their purposes. Building race distinctions for political gain has been deliberate policy of the entire Labour clique in power.
"New Zealand is in direct breach of the Covenant's requirement, that even laws or positive discrimination must have an expiry plan. Taking the past three months alone, no expiry plan was even discussed for the race discrimination provisions in the Trademarks Act, the Television New Zealand Act or the Local Govt Act.
"The Government has hand-picked Human Rights Commissioners, who tour the country with vague slogans about the Treaty. New Zealanders should ask them why they have not protested the open-ended discrimination provisions in so much recent law.
"Helen Clark uses UN obligations when it suits her to whack our traditional allies and express her student-level anti-Americanism. Meanwhile, she quietly ignores - and puts New Zealand in breach of - the UN convention rule that would interfere with her own legislative racism," Mr Franks said.

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