In December 2020, the New Zealand Government announced that New Zealand would have
a new Ministry for Ethnic Communities. There have been previous calls for the establishment
of a standalone Ministry, and this was proposed again in the report entitled Ko tō tatou kāinga
tēnei – Report on the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the terrorist attack on Christchurch
masjidain on 15 March 2019.
A new ministry means that for the first time, anyone in Aotearoa who identifies their ethnicity
as Middle Eastern, Latin American, Asian, African, and Continental European will have a great
level of representation in government.
The Minister for Diversity, Inclusion, and Ethnic Communities wanted to ensure that the
strategy and direction of the new ministry was shaped by the aspirations and priorities of the
communities it serves. There are a number of policy areas the new ministry could focus on to
lift the wellbeing of ethnic communities. The Minister wanted to ensure that the new ministry
prioritised the areas of most concern to ethnic communities.
This document summarises what we heard from communities about what really matters
to them.