Politicians across party lines have called out a leading academic who has questioned MP Parmjeet Parmar’s authority as a migrant to propose a bill seeking universities to not offer special treatment based on a student’s race.
The ACT Party’s List MP, serving her third term in Parliament, submitted a member's bill last week that she said would "ensure universities do not allocate resources, benefits or opportunities based on race".
It follows a Cabinet directive last year encouraging a "colourblind" public service. Parmar, who is ACTs tertiary education spokesperson, says that directive did not apply to universities – hence the need for her to propose the bill.
Khylee Quince, Dean of Law at Auckland University of Technology, later reposted on social media a news article about the bill with the message, “Alternative headline: Immigrant Forgets Where She Lives.”
The academic’s questioning of the bill not on its merits but rather because a migrant proposed it hasn’t gone down well with politicians.
The Minister for Ethnic Communities, Mark Mitchell, said Quince’s comments are “highly inappropriate, especially coming from someone like her that's in a leadership position at a university”.
Mitchell called out Quince for singling people out for their ethnic background. “Of course, it’s divisive,” he said.
“The direction I want to be taking…it's quite the opposite. It's around social cohesion. It's about recognising the value that everyone brings to our country, whether they arrived here a week ago, or whether they arrived 100 years ago.”
The minister said the leadership at the Auckland University of Technology should reflect on Quince’s comment and whether that could potentially impact her ability to deliver her role as Dean of Law at the institution.
The Chair of Labour Party’s Ethnic Caucus, Priyanca Radhakrishnan, says such remarks have “no place in the House of Representatives or anywhere in New Zealand”.
“I don’t condone comments about the Bill’s sponsor that target the fact that she’s a migrant to Aotearoa.
“There are many of us MPs who have migrated to New Zealand and we have the same rights as any other MP to do our jobs.”
She did question Parmar’s intentions behind proposing the bill. “At a time when unemployment is on the rise, cost of living is still an issue, our health system is broken, and homelessness is increasing, it’s quite telling that ACT is focused on imported culture wars.”
Parmar’s bill is in line with her party leader David Seymour’s broader pitch that public resources should be deployed on the basis of merit rather than race.
In March last year, Parmar had questioned the need for a separate enclosure for Maori and Pacific students at University of Auckland, a facility often described as a safe space based on cultural needs.
In a news report on Te Ao Maori News last week, Quince suggested migrants had a greater responsibility than Pakeha to understand New Zealand’s history and the struggle of the Maori people.
She was quoted as saying, “It’s one thing to have Pākehā say something about not wanting to understand, but for migrants, it’s particularly important.”
She added, “...it’s not lost on me, the irony that we have a wahine tauiwi - a migrant woman - who seems to forget where she has come from and where she has come to.”
Speaking to The Indian Weekender, Parmar dismissed suggestions the bill she has proposed is racist. “How can an endeavour towards creating equity for all be termed as racist,” she said.
“In fact, the fact a person with such views towards migrants holds such an influential position in public life calls into question her ability to not just teach but even deal with migrant students directly under her supervision,” Parmar said.
ISSUE
