Judith Collins claims people feel ‘very segregated’ because of calls for more diversity
National leader Judith Collins has blasted concerns about lack of diversity in society, claiming “people have felt very segregated” because of it – but she has no plans to get rid of the Maori electorates.
Collins was asked during a Q&A with Te Awamutu locals on Friday if she agreed that society had become more segregated. She did, saying there is “this chopping up of society into hating each other”.
Collins said it was “so awful” when she was criticised in May for asking if there was something wrong with her being white after then-National leader Todd Muller revealed an all-Caucasian frontbench – Collins included.
“I think one of the things I felt was so awful recently, is when I was asked by media if I was worried about diversity in the National Party and I was in the frontbench,” Collins told the Te Awamutu locals.
“I just said, ‘well, is there something wrong with me being white?’ That was like a bomb went off in media-land. I mean, the fact is, you are who you are and everybody needs to understand we’re all in it together.
“If Maori do well, if everyone else does well, Pakeha – everyone needs to be in it together. My son is Samoan and European and Chinese a little bit. He’s just a kid – he’s not something else.
“People have felt very segregated. It is true that Maori are way overrepresented in the poverty statistics and everything else. But the best thing to do is to get kids taught at school, look after your own kids and be careful.”
Collins said she had no plans to remove the Maori electorate seats, despite one of the locals suggesting it’s unfair because “we have politicians in Parliament there to represent Maori only”.
Collins said there are more important things for her to worry about.
“I know what you mean but I’m not actually going to fix that one. I’ve got to be honest about it, I won’t tell you I’ll fix something if I’m not going to. But I do think that the big thing is for Parliament to actually represent everybody,” Collins said.
“I represent people of Papakura. That doesn’t mean to say I can’t represent you too and your views on things. But everyone has their different things and we still have Maori electorates.
“We’ve always said in the National Party, they’ll be gone when people don’t think they’re relevant anymore, and right at the moment, just having people engaged and thinking about politics, it doesn’t worry me that much.
“I just think there are bigger things to do, and the biggest thing we can deal with is the economy at the moment… people being in jobs.”
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