KEY POINTS:
Pakeha-Maori relations ended the year on a high and hopeful note after the volatility and uneasiness of past years. Any lingering mistrust has been put aside, at least for now, with the Maori Party and its five MPs signed up to National's "inclusive" Government.
The party was offered two ministerial positions for its support of a party that has not embraced Maori with any degree of real affection in the past. This bodes well for the future of race relations between the two main communities, analysts say.
Last year, Pakeha-Maori relations took a dive, culminating in police raids on alleged training camps in the Ureweras and arrests of "terrorists", several of them Maori.
Maori railed that "race relations have been set back 100 years" and it appeared nothing could appease their fury. Now, the election has raised hopes for better Pakeha-Maori relations.
Race relations this year took on a different focus compared with previous years when attention shifted from Muslim immigrants-Maori-Pakeha to just Pakeha-Maori.
Next year might just bring happier times to the country some have described as having "the best race relations in the world".
The year started with Maori Party co-leader Tariana Turia questioning whether Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd's apology for past injustices to the Aboriginal community would have any real effect. She made parallels with New Zealand.
Sorry was a great gesture, she said, but it could be an empty one "when we have been unable to raise the bar on Treaty settlements". The real test would be in the detail of the investment made in generating hope for a solid future, she said.
In February, the Human Rights Commission released a report showing race relations were not an issue of major concern for most New Zealanders.
It was the top issue that concerned New Zealanders in 2002 and 2003. In 2004, it ranked third, in 2005 and 2006 it dropped to sixth.
Last year, it did not even make it to the top 10, instead topping the list of issues New Zealanders were most optimistic about.
Race Relations Commissioner Joris de Bres said that while the public mood on race relations was more positive, improvements were still needed in many areas.
In June, the fourth annual music awards celebrated the diversity of Pacific music in New Zealand. Pacific Music Awards chairman the Rev Mua Strickson Pua said the awards acknowledged the contribution of Pacific music to the economies of New Zealand and Pacific nations. He said Pacific music had been a trailblazer for race relations. All positive signs.
Christchurch City Council came up with an innovative idea in August by setting up a website that would enable foreign students to report racial abuse.
International students at Canterbury and Lincoln Universities and other groups could now complain anonymously online about racial harassment. Half the international students who took part in a survey said they had been harassed because of their race. The main barrier to not reporting harassment was not knowing how and to whom to complain.
Meanwhile, an academic report on Pacific Islanders drew the ire of the Pacific communities. The report by Massey University economist Greg Clydesdale said Pacific Island immigrants were less productive and less likely to contribute to economic growth.
They had the highest unemployment rate in every age group, were less likely to start businesses, had lower rates of self-employment and were over-represented in crime statistics. His report was dismissed as out-of-date and misleading.
The report, Growing Pains: Evaluations and the Cost of Human Capital, contained "only a few paragraphs about Pacific peoples and relied on out-of-date data that gave a misleading impression", Mr de Bres said.
On the campaign trail, National MP Lockwood Smith got himself into a pickle by saying Pacific workers needed to be taught to use toilets and showers and Asians had small hands that made them more productive.
Dr Smith, then National's immigration spokesman, was talking about expanding the Recognised Seasonal Employer Scheme to include workers from Asia.
The scheme enables employers in horticulture and viticulture to recruit up to 5000 overseas workers a year to meet labour shortages.
"There are some skills that some people are perhaps better at," Dr Smith said. Asian workers were more productive in pruning because their hands were smaller.
Victoria University programme director for Samoan studies Galumalemana Alfred Hunkin retorted that the comments were ridiculous and foolish. "They bring back shades of the sorts of comments that happened in the 1970s [during the dawn raids under former National leader Rob Muldoon]."
Dr Smith is now the Speaker of the House, having being passed over for ministerial positions.
The year ended with Catholic bishops calling on the Government to support the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in September last year. They complained that while 143 nations voted in favour of the declaration, New Zealand was one of three continuing to oppose it. The others were the United States and Canada.
The unseating of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters on election day could also be seen as a positive for race relations, as he often played the race card during election campaigns.
- NZPA
