New Zealand has long been known as a pioneering, progressive nation in the Asia-Pacific region, fostering a far friendlier, cooperative relationship with its indigenous Maori population than its Australian colonial counterparts. Indeed, the first Maori Member of Parliament was elected in 1868; the first of many ‘firsts, including being the first country in the world to introduce universal adult female suffrage in 1893.
Peter Tritt, the College of Law’s Director, Asia-Pacific, outlined the New Zealand experience of equal opportunity in his presentation to the 28th LawAsia Conference, held recently in Sydney.
“The pioneering nature of early New Zealand colonial society (with settlers arriving intent on establishing a better world) contributed to a string of world firsts in many other aspects of law and society,” observed Tritt.
“From the very beginnings of self-government, the colony was a hotbed of radicalism,” said Tritt, noting the push for free, compulsory and secular education for all races, equal voting rights for women and property ownership, education and employment and social welfare for the aged as examples of these early, provocative ideas. By the end of the 19th Century, New Zealand had become widely regarded as the ‘social laboratory of the world’, attracting the era’s intellectuals – Mark Twain, English socialists Sidney and Beatrice Webb, and American journalist Henry Demarest Lloyd.
In 1911, New Zealand adopted a coat of arms featuring a European woman, Maori man and the British crown, which showed “just how New Zealand saw itself in the world, as a unique place where men and woman and Maori and European were equal,” said Tritt.
New Zealand also enjoyed status as being the first nation in the British Empire to elect a woman major (1894) and admit a woman lawyer (1897), Ethel Benjamin. Indeed, Ethel Benjamin commenced her studies in 1892 when women were yet to be admitted to practice, but pushed on, having “faith that a colony so liberal as our own would not long tolerate such purely artificial barriers.” Her faith was vindicated by the introduction of the Female Legal Practitioners Act in 1896.
Of all the OECD nations, New Zealand is the fifth most ethnically diverse with 25% of its residents born overseas, though the demographic makeup is predominantly European and Maori. Its significant indigenous Maori population (15% of the overall population) mark New Zealand as quite unique compared to other countries, with Australia’s indigenous people comprising of 3% of the overall population, and Native Americans as 1.7% of the overall United States population.
With the 1993 introduction of the Mixed Member Proportional (MMP) voting system, this commitment to diversity was instilled into New Zealand’s democratic system. “The resulting wider ethnic diversity in Parliament means that all New Zealand political parties are ethnically diverse and all attempt to appeal to all ethnicities,” said Tritt.
An Australian audience member of Tritt’s presentation noted New Zealand’s long history of social integration between its Maori and European population could best explain New Zealand’s positive track record when it came to broader ethnic social integration.
“The rapid social and ethnic transformation of New Zealand and Auckland, in under 20 years, to the status known as ‘Superdiversity’ happened without any riots or civil unrest, or ethnic ghettos,” observed Tritt. Regardless, he acknowledges achieving equal opportunity is a work-in-progress.
“New Zealand is a country that tries very, very hard to do the right thing, but there is always room for improvement. I don’t want to leave any rose-tinted impression of everything being fine, as there are many critics in New Zealand who find plenty to criticise. That is a natural part of the internal dynamic of any society that wants to progress.”