Grey Power

Mathew Dearnaley at NZ Herald reports:

A senior Grey Power official has complained about the planned increase in immigrants in Auckland – prompting claims from his national president that his submission is racist.

Auckland zone director Bill Rayner wrote in a submission to Auckland Council that the community and lifestyle of the region’s older residents “is under serious threat from the rapid and huge changes in size and ethnic mix projections included in the Auckland Plan”.

His submission also calls on Auckland Council to hold a forum to make decisions about the Super City’s “optimum size and ethnicity”.

It is not at all racist to say the pace of immigration is too high. It is racist though to say we only want people from certain ethnicities.

One size should not fit all when it comes to hairdressing licence fees in a multi-cultural Auckland, says Grey Power regional director Bill Rayner.

Arguing against a standardised fee of $207 across the region, Mr Rayner has referred Auckland Council to the varied hair types .

“It is clear that in South Auckland with a large Pasifika population, [with] big people with good heads of hair, the hairdresser needs are quite different from Remuera where perms and pin curls are probably still a key feature of the hairdressers’ professional skill,” he wrote.

Members of the Asian population have very straight hair, and “due recognition should be given to the greater productivity that results from cutting thinning hair in areas of a high population of seniors”.

Oh dear. I think his comments speak for themselves.