We should all be thanking Chris Hipkins for his casual racism against Pasifika people by saying out loud that he didn’t think Pasifika people could really afford to experience tourism in Queenstown, implying they are too poor to travel there. Now we know what Labour senior ministers really think about Pasifika:
COVID-19 Response Minister Chris Hipkins has apologised for appearing to suggest people from Pacific countries can’t afford to spend in Queenstown, even if the border was open to them.
Hipkins made the comments after ACT leader David Seymour asked him in Parliament on Thursday when the Government will open the border to Pacific nations given the low rates of COVID-19.
“With regard to the Pacific, the biggest impediment there and the biggest area of caution is the desire to ensure that New Zealand does not export COVID-19 to the Pacific, because the consequences of that – as we have seen in the past – could be devastating for those Pacific nations,” Hipkins said.
Seymour asked Hipkins if he would like to explain that to Hawke’s Bay horticulturalists with fruit rotting on the ground or Queenstown tourism operators going broke for a lack of tourists.
Hipkins responded: “I think in regard to the latter part of the question, the member might like to consider how many of the people from those countries would be spending their money in Queenstown.”
Hipkins later defended the remarks, telling Newshub: “Generally speaking, people from those countries aren’t spending huge amounts of money in the tourist resorts of Queenstown.”
Hipkins said he didn’t have any data to back up his claims. He admitted making “a bit of an assumption” about Pacific people.
“It’s just not where they’re going and spending their money,” he said.
“They tend to be coming to New Zealand for family reasons and work reasons and health reasons and other reasons. I think it’s an assumption that’s probably a fair one.”
Newshub
And then he gives a weaselly faux apology:
If anyone from the Pacific was offended by my comments then I absolutely apologise for them. I did not mean to cast aspersions on people from the Pacific Islands,” he said.
“It could be seen as an unfair assumption, I absolutely accept that. I hadn’t properly thought that through and certainly if people were upset by that, I did not mean to cast aspersions.”
Newshub
So, let’s parse that apology…he’s only sorry if anyone was offended.
If a National MP said what he said, the Twiterrorists would be demanding his resignation, he’d be cancelled, written off.
Instead we get crickets from the usual suspects.
Chris Hipkins didn’t apologise, he pretended to.
But we should all thank Chris Hipkins, because we now know precisely what the elites in the Government really think about Pasifika.
To be fair the signs have been there for some time.
This is what Labour have always thought of the Pasifika community. It’s why the Government changed the rules for CCP Virus afflicted people and required them to be locked up in isolation. It all happened when the CCP Virus started to get into Pasifika communities. Essentially the Government thinks they are too stupid to follow Covid instructions so they need to be locked up at Jetpark.
Now the Government is implicitly saying they are all too hopeless and poor to have any cash to splash in and around Queenstown.
Stupid, Poor, Brown, Non-Compliant….that’s what Labour thinks about Pasifika, we need wonder no longer.
If you enjoyed this post please share it.