[Name withheld, government worker at the Ministry of Education]
I am writing to you about the issue of compelled speech in the Ministry of Education here in New Zealand.
I apologise that I do not give my name. I believe that if senior staff at the Ministry of Education discovered I was writing to you about this issue, my job would be at risk.
As you know, staff at the Ministry of Education have been strongly pressured to attend “diversity training” at huge taxpayer expense (flights, accommodation and food all paid for by taxpayers in a situation where a Zoom meeting would work equally well).
Many of us do not wish to be involved in such divisive “training”, and it is causing division and dissent in our workplace.
We have also been pressured to attend Te Reo classes in working hours instead of doing our regular duties, and something called Te Arawhiti training is also now being pushed and, once again, paid for (all expenses included!) by New Zealand taxpayers.
In the latest part of this ideological push, this week I was personally called aside by my boss and told that I ‘must‘ now use Maori language greetings and sign-offs in internal emails I send. There was a threat of reprimand if I didn’t do so.
I believe my boss was afraid to not push this mandate of compelled speech. I got the strong impression that he/she was being pressured to pressure me, and there would be trouble if we didn’t comply.
I asked if I could leave off greetings altogether, and was told this was “not possible”.
I asked if I could leave off my own name or initials and was told that this also was not an option.
I asked if I could simply send the email on behalf of the team I am a part of so my name would not be included. Also a no-go.
I was told if I complained about this to higher up, our very senior management would become involved, and “I wouldn’t want that”.
I view this as a threat and an infringement of my freedom of speech.
I do not speak Maori or understand it. I am an immigrant and a speaker of English who recognises the value of communicating in a language almost all New Zealanders understand and use.
Not only is Maori being forced upon us now, but more and more internal documents include a huge number of Maori words that neither I nor any of my teammates understand or use by our own choice. It is getting to the point that many of these internal emails and documents are unreadable and incomprehensible to non-Maori speakers or staff, especially those whose first language is not even English.
It is alienating and confusing.
While I have no problem with others using Maori greetings in their emails if they choose (I believe it’s entirely up to them), I am not happy about being forced to use greetings in a language I do not speak and have no interest in learning, and to sign off on these emails as if the choice were my own to write Maori.
It is not.
I am now afraid that I will lose my job if I refuse to comply.
I believe that this is all part of the move to divide our population and put us against one another, Kiwi against Kiwi, and to push forward with an extreme leftist agenda that would compel speech, ban “hate speech” (which is another way of saying anything the extreme left disagree with), and limit freedom in our country.
Can this issue please be looked into and raised in Parliament? If we do not push back, we risk losing the freedom that makes New Zealand a welcoming and friendly country to be proud of.
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