Service to help bridge culture gap

NZME. CEO Jane Hastings and Lawyer Mai Chen during the Superdiversity launch in Auckland. Photo / Greg Bowker

A media company and a law firm will be going into partnership to provide a service to help organisations better communicate with New Zealand's "super diverse" population.

Cultural Bridge, a service to help government departments and local council organisations communicate with diverse New Zealanders was launched together with a Superdiversity Stocktake report tonight.

The service, a joint venture between publishers of the Herald, NZ Media and Entertainment and Chen Palmer, will provide end to end service helping organisations communicate with the right messaging and translation.

"With the increasing superdiversity of New Zealanders, we know organisations consistently struggle to communicate effectively, in particular getting the right message to the right audience," said NZME chief executive Jane Hastings.

"Cultural Bridge is an innovative solution about communication not interpretation; it's about culture and not just language."

At the last Census, nearly one in four people in Auckland identified with an Asian ethnicity and more than 200 ethnicities now call New Zealand home.

Chen Palmer managing partner Mai Chen said the service was a natural extension to its Superdiversity Centre for law, politics and business.

"One of the first projects tackled by the centre was to understand...New Zealand's rapidly changing demographic profile," she said.

"What the Superdiversity Stocktake made clear was the gap in communicating with all New Zealanders on public policy, law reform, and on voting and referenda and on the Treaty of Waitangi."

The 400-page report, which had 58 key findings and made 78 recommendations, was launched at the Auckland Art Gallery.

"The issues are not really about race, and it isn't racist to talk about these issues. It is about NZ's future success," Ms Chen said.

"Ultimately, I am recommending a formal multi-cultural policy, on a bi-cultural basis, so we can systematically analyse the implications of a very ethnically diverse society on laws, policies, services, consultation, communication, the economy and social cohesion and fund the measures needed."

A Wellington briefing of public servants, hosted by NZ Customs, will take place later this month following the launch and a working conference with key decision makers from central and local government is being planned for February next year.