15 February 2021

Kia ora koutou,

Welcome to our first edition of Ethnic Voices in 2021. Let me wish you a belated Happy New Year and a Happy Chinese New Year.

Over the weekend COVID-19 has impacted on our lives again with the first changes to Alert Levels for some time. There’s more information on what this means later in this newsletter. It’s a hard thing to take, particularly for our communities in Auckland who face more restrictions. But let me add my voice to those people rightly saying that we’ve beaten this before and will do so again.

Although COVID-19 is dominating the headlines, the set-up of the new Ministry for Ethnic Communities has dominated our work so far this year. There are two parts to this:

• Putting the ‘building blocks’ in place
• Talking with our Ethnic Communities about how the Ministry should work.

We have the opportunity to meet and talk with members of Ethnic Communities every day and the new Ministry is often a part of those conversations. There have also been some more structured sessions to get community input. The Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, which is leading the response to the Royal Commission report, has run these sessions with our support. Minister Radhakrishnan will be leading more engagements in the coming weeks and we will keep you up to date on this work.

For putting the ‘building blocks’ in place we’ve appointed an experienced project team. The new Ministry will be in place by 1 July and ‘building blocks’ refers to a number of things that need to be in place for any new Government agency to function. This includes legislation, transferring existing functions from the Office of Ethnic Communities and appointing a Chief Executive. It’s not a small undertaking.

We can’t function without these ‘building blocks’. But we can’t succeed without our Ethnic Communities being part of the process. So I see community engagement work being the most critical thing. There’s more to come.

Through our engagements so far two questions have regularly come up:

• How will the new Ministry be different from the Office of Ethnic Communities
• Why will the new Ministry be a Departmental Agency and will that reduce its    independence?

There are some fundamental differences between the current Office model and the new Ministry. Firstly, it will be a Ministry in itself rather than a part of another Government organisation. It will work directly to the Minister and have its own Chief Executive.

It’s the first time Aotearoa New Zealand’s Ethnic Communities will have had this level of representation in Government. A Ministry will have greater prominence and influence across Government, ensuring that Ethnic Community matters are more visible.

Having a Chief Executive will help create a level playing field with other government agencies. The Chief Executive will have a seat at the table with other chief executives and so can influence at the highest levels. We’ll be better placed to influence the policy decisions and the design of Government services.

Some of the Office’s work will continue. The new Ministry will engage with communities and continue to provide other services that Ethnic Communities have said they value, such as the Ethnic Communities Development Fund, Multilingual Information Network and Nominations Service.

On the question of whether the new Ministry will be truly independent let me deal with that right now and say the new Ministry for Ethnic Communities will be independent and will work directly to the Minister, independent of the Department of Internal Affairs for all functions and services for Ethnic Communities. As with other Ministries the Chief Executive will be directly accountable to the Minister.

Where the new Ministry will work with DIA is to tap into it for some back-office functions such as payroll, corporate policies and monthly finances. Sharing some back-office functions will make things more efficient. It will also mean the new Ministry can be in place more quickly.

There’s work to do to be ready for 1 July. We have a very experienced project team and there’s more community engagement planned. The new Ministry for Ethnic Communities will give Aotearoa New Zealand’s Ethnic Communities greater voice and influence across Government. We welcome everyone’s views in helping shape how that works.

We’ll keep you up to date with progress. In the meantime take care of yourselves, your whānau and your communities.

Ngā mihi nui
Anusha Guler
Executive Director, Office of Ethnic Communities

Latest news

COVID-19 - change to Alert Levels 

On Sunday the Prime Minister announced a change to COVID-19 Alert Levels. This followed the identification of three new community cases.

From 11.59pm on Sunday 14 February Auckland moved to Alert Level 3 and the rest of New Zealand to Alert Level 2. These levels will remain in place until at least midnight on Wednesday 17 February.

This means for those in Auckland:

• Staying home
• Not traveling out of the Auckland region
• Wearing a face mask/covering and maintaining physical distancing if you have to go out
• Working from home if possible – businesses that require close physical contact can’t operate
• Getting children to learn at home if possible
• Restricting gatherings to no more than 10 people at wedding services, funerals, and tangihanga
• Washing hands
• Using the NZ COVID Tracer app.

For the rest of the country:

• Businesses and schools remain open but public health guidance including physical distancing and record keeping need to be maintained
• Mass gatherings will need to be limited to 100 people
• Hospitality businesses must keep groups of customers separated, seated, and served by a single person with a maximum of 100 people at a time
• Maintaining physical distancing
• Washing hands
• Use the NZ COVID Tracer app
• Wear a face mask/covering if you are in an enclosed space like on public transport.

If you feel ill

• Stay home if you are sick or vulnerable
• If you have COVID-19 like symptoms stay home and call your GP or Healthline on 0800 611 116 for advice about getting tested.

More information on Alert Levels, including restrictions/exemptions on travel to and from Auckland can be found on the COVID-19 website.

Hopefully these restrictions will not need to be in place for long. If we all follow the rules we can beat this.

That said, going into higher alert levels, especially in Auckland can be stressful. Information on looking after your mental wellbeing can be found on the COVID-19 website.

COVID-19 vaccines

Recently the Government gave formal approval for using the Pfizer/BioNTech vaccine. This followed Medsafe’s approval – confirming the vaccine was safe to use in New Zealand.

We’ve been talking with the Ministry of Health about how vaccinations will be rolled-out. It’s still quite early in this process and the current plan sees vaccination happening in three phases:

• First, those most at risk of catching the virus (as well as their household contacts) i.e. staff working at New Zealand’s borders, including managed isolation facilities and those involved in treating people with COVID-19
• Second, those most vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19 – typically the elderly and those with underlying health conditions
• Third, the rest of the population.

There’s a lot of detail to be worked out yet and the first delivery of vaccines is still to arrive in New Zealand.

One thing that has been made clear is that getting vaccinated will not be mandatory. It will be strongly encouraged to help keep everyone safe.

We know from our community engagement work that members of our Ethnic Communities have particular questions e.g. whether vaccines are Halal? This is all being raised with the Ministry of Health team and we will keep you up to date as things develop. In the meantime you can find out more about the Government’s vaccine strategy at the COVID-19 website.

We’ve also made clear the need for translated material on vaccines and key information will shortly be available in 23 languages on the COVID-19 website.

Our new advisors in Dunedin

Over the last year we’ve been able to expand our engagement work so we’re connecting with Ethnic Communities in more and more places. Recently we’ve taken on two new Community Engagement Advisors in Dunedin, Ana Mapusua and Lina Lastra.

These new roles reflect the growing ethnic diversity of Dunedin and the wider Otago and Southland regions.

Ana and Lina will be working with Ethnic Communities from North Waitaki through to Bluff, including Central Otago. They love meeting people so please say hello if you run into them.

After having lived in Tonga for one year and as an adult over the course of ten years lived in Europe and Japan, Ana has always championed social cohesion.

Returning to New Zealand in 2014, Ana has been working in the Non-Government Organisation Space since joining us at DIA/OEC mid-November 2020.

Graduating with a Bachelor in Applied management (Project Management) she was managing multiple projects across New Zealand with an evidence based research and a heavy focus on Social Justice. Projects such as Self-regulation in education, SLCN - Speech Language communication needs within the Justice sector, delivering programmes into prison and designing content for new national projects.

One of Ana’s biggest achievements apart from her family would be receiving an alumni award in 2020 from Otago Polytechnic recognising her contribution to the community.

Now in the role of Diversity and Engagement Advisor, she has really hit the ground running.

Ana says - “I’m really looking forward to being part of celebrating diversity, fostering social cohesion and bringing awareness of different cultural aspects to our wonderful city, Dunedin.  Providing a voice to communities that are not always heard is of paramount importance and I’m so honoured to play a part in that.”

Ana’s hopes are that she is able to contribute to the Vision that the Office of Ethnic Communities has in a way that has impact on the betterment of society and furthermore, New Zealand.  

This year Ana aspires to learn more about Islamic culture and has already dived into a few online resources as well as our very own professional development material.

In Ana’s spare time she loves to be by the sea and outdoors with her family, she enjoys writing and spending time with friends.