Opinion: Equality vs. Fairness

New Zealanders care about fairness, not equality says Clayton Mitchell.

New Zealanders care about fairness, not 'equality'. The 'political correctness' flooding our country is an international liberal academic construct that has no place in New Zealand, and all the media focus on invented notions of 'equality' go against the Kiwi grain. We are a nation founded on fairness, and if we lose sight of that, we will kill what's great about who we are and what we really offer the world.

We love sport, and we do well at it... when the rules are fair. Olympic doping, and America's Cup judiciaries drive Kiwis nuts, and rightly so.

Nobody loves paying taxes, but we do it because we want fair access to good services like schools and hospitals and the police, and we believe it's reasonable when we all pay our fair share. But we hate it when we hear about so-called 'creative accounting' and multinational corporations making billions and only paying thousands - when they pay anything at all. We know it's not right, because we know it's not fair.

Working 40 hours a week and going backwards is not the New Zealand way, because it is not fair. Seeing your wages stay too low to move forward because the government is letting in thousands of low-skilled foreign workers who will work for peanuts is not fair. A fair day's pay for a fair day's work is the Kiwi way. We need to train Kiwis in the skills we need, and to pay them fairly.

Hyper-immigration is unfair. If someone works the system and goes from a student visa to a permanent resident without following the spirit of the law, and then brings their parents over - who can't speak English, but are eligible for a full New Zealand pension after only ten years of non-investment in New Zealand - we know it isn't right because we know it isn't fair.

Equality is unfair. Whether you're at the top or the bottom, equality will keep you there, or it will disincentivise hard work, through hand-outs. We are all different, and in different positions, but we all deserve a fair go - a helping hand when we need it, not a hand-out. Fairness is what New Zealand and New Zealanders believe in, and it's fair enough to expect it from our government.

New Zealand First is the only party offering fairness. Blue multinational corporate equality or red-green communist equality - the status quo, or hand-outs (or ethnic separatism) - are no choice at all. This election, the choice is black and white.

MP Clayton Mitchell. Photo/Andrew Warner