The prime minister lends credibility to Winston Peters’ war on ‘the woke’

Tuesday, 11 March 2025

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon fields tough questions on the economy, housing, and his government's plans, defending their focus on delivery for New Zealanders.

Prime Minister Christopher Luxon has added credibility to NZ First’s war against “woke” hiring practices and diversity, saying he will consider the party’s bill to “remove woke DEI regulations”.

“DEI” is corporate jargon for “Diversity, Equity and Inclusion”, and is normally used to refer to programmes to boost female participation and improve ethnic representation in the workforce.

It’s an issue which US President Donald Trump has taken aim at, including blaming - without evidence - air crashes on DEI policies. Over the past week, NZ First leader Winston Peters brought the issue into New Zealand politics with a bill to “put an end to woke-left wing social engineering”.

On Tuesday, Luxon joined Peters’ “anti-woke” quest. He said he agreed with the idea of changing public service policies to create a “meritocracy”.

But Luxon wouldn’t provide any examples or evidence suggesting the public service wasn’t already hiring and promoting workers based on their merits.

The breakdown

NZ First submitted its “Repeal of Diversity and Inclusiveness Requirements Bill” on Friday as a private member’s bill. That meant it would only be debated in Parliament if it got the luck of the draw and was pulled from “the biscuit tin”.

The bill would remove mentions of diversity in the Public Service Act, which instructed chief executives to work towards ensuring their organisations were reflective of the population.

Christopher Luxon and Winston Peters have been talking about diversity hiring in the public service.

Despite this bill not being on the Government’s agenda, Luxon on Tuesday indicated he supported some of its ideas.

The Government was planning its own amendments to the Public Service Act, Luxon said. When Public Service Minister Judith Collins drafts those amendments, he said he would consider the need to ensure a “meritocracy”.

But when Stuff asked Luxon if he was aware of any example where hiring hadn’t been skills-based, he replied: “No, I’m not going to do that.”

Who said what

Luxon said there were “a lot” of changes he wanted to make to the Public Service Act, when asked whether he supported Peters’ “anti-woke” bill.

“We’ll certainly look at the bill and see if there’s anything there,” Luxon said.

Judith Collins discusses New Zealand’s relationship with India, defence spending, and her views on public service reforms, calling for a focus on merit and fairness.

He continued, “What I’d say to you is, we have a piece of work under way around the Public Service Act. Judith Collins is the minister working with the new public service commissioner… We will make sure and ensure it is a meritocracy - that is absolutely critical.”

But he wouldn’t say if there was “diversity hiring” happening in the public sector, and also wouldn’t give an example of the Government’s equity ambition impacting the public service.

Collins declared herself “the least woke person”.

“I am already well awake,” she said. And as an awake minister, she said the best people were being hired in the public service.

“I think it is important to presume that people who have been appointed have been appointed for their merit,” she said.

Peters said he wasn’t surprised to hear Luxon was considering what to adopt from the DEI bill.

“It’s going tremendous out there in the public,” he said.

He said the public service had become “a breeding ground for identity politics” and his bill would put an end to that.

“This bill would put an end to the woke left-wing social engineering and diversity targets in the public sector. New Zealand is a country founded on meritocracy not on some mind-numbingly stupid ideology,” he said, when he announced the bill on Friday.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins it was ironic to hear National and NZ First rallying against diversity targets, when both parties had previously supported these pro-equity policies.

“Our public sector work force should reflect who we are as a country,” he said.

Donald Trump declared he won the war against woke during his address to Congress.

The history

In the US, Donald Trump has been leading the “war on the woke”.

Diversity policies have been a key target for for the Republican president.

During his address to Congress last week, he declared: “We have ended the tyranny of so-called diversity, equity and inclusion policies all across the entire federal government and indeed the private sector.”

After that speech, Peters and NZ First issued a press release to introduce their new anti-DEI bill.