The Mapp Report
www.wayne-mapp.co.nz
Political Correctness
My appointment in respect to Political Correctness will be a fascinating challenge. Everyone rails against it, but no
one has a coherent plan to first stop it, and then roll it back. I have been concerned for some time at the creeping
political correctness agenda and a few months ago I wrote a paper on political correctness - what it is, why it is wrong
and how to address it. www.wayne-mapp.co.nz
It is not just the silly examples we all hear about, for example the banning of lolly scrambles at community events.
Usually ridicule is enough to bat those away. The real problem is the way the politically correct have seized parts of
the state and used it to push their own minority agenda - not just a viewpoint. What's more, they back this up with
coercive power. Not all institutions of government are susceptible to this, but some are especially vulnerable. Of
course this could not happen unless there were sponsors in high places.
We all know that Helen Clark's government is particularly favourable towards the agendas of the politically correct -
the reason being that Helen Clark is the chief supporter. That is why there has been so much social engineering over the
last five years - aimed at changing the way we should think. People are required to continually censor themselves in
case something they say will upset someone else's sensibilities.
Some of the emails I have received since my appointment suggest I am anti-minorities and have no respect for them. This
is simply not true. Racial and other serious discrimination should not be tolerated. Rather, I feel that under the guise
of protecting minorities, we have lost one of the most important values of a free society; the right to freely express
one's opinion. The whole point of freedom of speech is that it protects opinions that one sector of society might be
deeply opposed to.
Over the next few months I will be setting out a strategy to address the agenda of the politically correct. This will
begin with a review of the current law with the objective of removing advocacy roles from public institutions that ought
to focus on the adjudication of rights.
Air New Zealand
The announcement that 600 people will lose their jobs in Air New Zealand's engineering division in Auckland will be
keenly felt on the North Shore. In times like these we are reminded of the smallness of our country. It will be very
difficult for these highly skilled staff to find other employment in the aviation industry.
Of course, Air New Zealand has to make commercial decisions in order to be competitive. One of the questions to be asked
is whether the division could be sold off in its entirety, or in parts? The RNZAF Hercules are currently being
refurbished with new aircraft instruments in a Canadian aviation services company in Edmonton, Alberta.
Perhaps there is an opportunity to develop a spin-off company to do this kind of work here. The Air New Zealand
workshops already undertake a lot of third party work. So it has to be asked, could the division be sold off in its
entirety, or in parts?
Once a skill base the size of Air New Zealand engineering is lost, it will be very difficult to rebuild in the future.
28 October 2005
Dr Wayne Mapp
ENDS