June 16, 2021 11:00am by David Farrar

The quota people are never happy

An article in Stuff shows how the pro-quota people are never happy. If you meet one quota then they invent others for you, so the self-flagellation continues.

Michelle Duff writes:

Boardrooms are still overwhelmingly white – it’s just that now, there are more white women.
Last year, the Government reached its 50 per cent target.

So the gender target was achieved, so now they say you also need an ethnicity target. If you make that, then they’ll demand an age target or a sexual orientation one.

But in 2019, the first year it counted ethnicity in its annual gender stocktake, it found the makeup was 21.2 percent Māori, 4.6 percent Pasifika, 3.6 percent Asian and less than one per cent other ethnicities.

And how do they describe this?

“We are doing fantastic when it comes to gender generally, but when you look within it, it’s a replication of Pākeha democracy and privilege. I think now we are ready to look at other aspects of diversity,” Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo says.

So let’s look at these stats. First we need to look at the eligible population. While there is no hard and fast rule I’d say it is very rare to have someone in their 20s in governance roles. You need experience to perform governance well. So what is NZ’s over 30 population. It is 74% European, 14% Asian, 12% Maori and 5% Pasifika (adds up to more than 100% as some people in multiple ethnicities).

So let’s compare state governance percentages to over 30 population.

European 72% vs 74%
Maori 21% vs 12%
Asian 3.6% vs 14%
Pasifika 4.6% vs 5%

So in fact the statement about Pakeha privilege is wrong. Both European and Pasifika state sector board appointments are roughly in line with their over 30 population.

The big disparity is that Maori are vastly over-represented and Asians vastly under-represented compared to their population.