"We will never be a fully multicultural society until we've fully adopted our bicultural foundations, and that's the struggle" says Devoy, a former race relations commissioner.

In an interview with Grey Areas host Petra Bagust, Devoy said racism is "an intractable problem".

It's always going to be there, it's never going to be eradicated.

Devoy said during her period as race relations commissioner between 2013 and 2018,75 percent of the complaints of racist behaviour she received "were all from the same demographic.

"They were old, not always men, but predominantly men, white - you couldn't call them Pakeha because that offended them as well - and threatened ...that something that was never theirs in the beginning was going to be taken away from them.

"I don't think any education in the world is going to change that attitude, and I think that attitude has been slightly empowered ... the minute they hear politicians using dog-whistle politics, they feel beholden in themselves to be able to say the things they only thought, but to say them out loud and to other people.

"Whatever I say is not going to change their point of view.

"The only thing that is going to change is that eventually they will pass away, and let's hope the next generation haven't inherited those beliefs that they have."

What would Jesus do?

Devoy then told Bagust of an incident where she was accused of "abolishing" Christmas after working with Belong Aotearoa.

That group - then known as the Auckland Regional Migrants Society - was set up to support refugees and new arrivals settling into New Zealand.

A Christmas lunch was being held for the collective.

As most of the migrants invited to the lunch weren't Christian and didn't relate to the festival, a more inclusive seasonal message replaced "Merry Christmas".

"Honestly, that escalated beyond actual belief - I got accused of wanting to ban Christmas and I got Christmas cards galore," Devoy told Bagust.

She said as she herself is a Christian, she thought the backlash "rather ironic" due to the teaching of Jesus Christ.

"Someone sent me a box of faeces that was wrapped up in beautiful Christmas paper.

"The box didn't offend me so much; it was the fact that someone had come down my driveway in the middle of the night and left it there," Devoy said.

"What would Jesus do?

"I think he would want us all to celebrate in the manner that we do, and this is where I can't quite understand the IQ of people sometimes."

Source

• Te Ao Maori News

"Whether it's a mosque giving Holocaust deniers a platform or whether it's an evangelical church spewing hatred about gay New Zealanders: this is not how we roll here. This is not who we are. This is who we do not want to ever become," said Dame Susan Devoy.

She was speaking after official complaints were laid about at comments by Iranian diplomat made at an Auckland mosque in June.

One of the diplomats called Israel a "cancerous tumour" and said it has to be "surgically removed"

A second diplomat speaking at the same event denied that the Holocaust took place

"If we are to learn anything from the Holocaust it is that racism and hatred start small", Devoy said.

"But we ignore it at our peril. All of us are responsible to ensure we live in a country where hate is never normalised. We can never let our country become one where racism goes unquestioned.

"And if we have to use glitter bombs to make our point - as some did at parliament over the weekend - so be it. It's up to all of us to decide what kind of country we live in. While there are formal complaint processes that can and have been taken, just because something isn't illegal does not make it OK."

Devoy was referring to an incident when a small group of the National Front members protesting in Parliament grounds were pelted with glitter bombs.

Hate speech - the advocacy of hatred based on nationality, race or religion - occupies an exceptional position in international law.

The New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 gives everyone the right to freedom of expression, including the right to seek, receive and impart information and opinions of any kind in any form. But hate speech is prohibited under section 61

Source

• Scoop
• New Zealand Herald
• Article 19
• The New Zealand Law Society
• Image: Vice

I get many letters and emails: some polite, many abusive or threatening. The personal attacks aren't new and I've got pretty thick skin, for a simple squash player.

But as well as the haters I also get the opposite: messages of thanks and support from people who are grateful I stood up for their right to live in peace and dignity.

They aren't powerful or famous people but their voices mean more to me than those who think it's PC gone mad to actively work at peaceful race relations.

Super Diversity isn't coming, it's already here. We are home to more than 200 ethnicities - more cultures than the UN has member states. More than one million of us were born overseas and these trends will continue.

New Zealand is one of the most ethnically diverse nations on the planet, to ignore our differences is a naïve and hopeless response to an issue the entire world is grappling with.

Race relations in our country are far from OK. A third of all complaints we receive are about racial discrimination but we know many people never bother complaining. If we aren't careful the future we leave our children will be vastly different from the peaceful New Zealand we grew up in.

It's not OK for Muslim Kiwis to be singled out, abused and discriminated against because of violent extremists. Neither is it OK to blame Jewish Kiwis for an unfolding tragedy thousands of miles away.

It's not OK for Maori New Zealanders to be racially profiled shopping at their supermarket or walking down the street. Continue reading

• Dame Susan Devoy is New Zealand's Race Relations Commissioner.