Axe race relations office, Govt told

By EUGENE BINGHAM political reporter

A politically sensitive Government report recommends disbanding the Race Relations Office and handing its functions to a Human Rights Institution.

The end of a separate office after 26 years would remove the unique position of race relations and place them alongside other forms of discrimination such as sexual orientation, age and religion.

It is understood that Associate Justice Minister Margaret Wilson, who commissioned the report, favours implementing the plan but has yet to win the support of her cabinet colleagues.

After three months of privately mulling over the findings at cabinet committee level, the Government will release the report as a discussion document this week for public submissions.

The timing of the release is sensitive, coming after last week's attack by Prime Minister Helen Clark on the current Race Relations Conciliator, Rajen Prasad.

Dr Prasad incurred Helen Clark's fury when he warned that a controversial Treaty of Waitangi clause in proposed health legislation risked inciting racial disharmony.

Last night he declined to comment on the recommendation until the report is released. Dr Prasad is due to step down next year.

The Federation of Ethnic Councils said last night that it would oppose the changes. It said the office's work was invaluable and should not be farmed out to a broader agency.

Ms Wilson called for the report in May, when she appointed four advisers to review human rights protections and the agencies which oversee them.

The advisers were asked to find ways to further "mainstream" human rights and to consider changes that would enhance their promotion and enforcement.

They were told that such changes could include a shake-up of the roles, structures and operation of the agencies.

Of the four advisers, Janet McLean and Paul Hunt were asked to focus on the provisions of the Human Rights Act and New Zealand's international obligations, while Peter Cooper and Bill Mansfield were asked to use their expertise as public and private sector reformers.

Their report recommends doing away with the Human Rights Commission and the Race Relations Office and amalgamating them within the new Human Rights Institution, a restructured, expanded version of the commission.

It is understood the other agency under the commission's ambit, the Office of the Privacy Commissioner, would be retained as a separate body because its role is separate from that of the other two.

The institution would deal with complaints of discrimination, and would also be given the job of increasing public understanding of and debate about human rights issues.

The report was completed in early August, and has been under consideration since then by Ms Wilson and other ministers.

Debate has centred around the structure of the new institution and ensuring it is robust enough to be independent and effective.

Ms Wilson was eager that the changes did not appear to water down the powers of either the commission or the Race Relations Office.

Consideration has also been given to the political implications of disbanding the office and leaving accountability to a board rather than a specialist conciliator.

The president of the Federation of Ethnic Councils, Nagalingam Rasalingam, said he believed a specialist race office should be retained.

"We prefer to have an independent body," he said. "It will be a drawback not to."

He was concerned that race relations could be swamped by the other work already carried out by the commission.

A spokesman for Ms Wilson said last night that she would not comment until the report was released.

The latest annual report of the Race Relations Office shows that it received 658 new complaints in the 12 months to June last year, a 47 per cent increase on the previous year.

In that report, Dr Prasad called for race relations to be taken more seriously.

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