NZ Police Professional Development Seminar

Ladies and Gentlemen, I greet you in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and Sign Langauge.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and (Sign)

Greetings specifically: Abbess Manshin, Fo Guang Shan Buddhist Temple; Superintendent Brett England, Acting District Commander, Auckland City District; Mr Mervin Singham, Director Ethnic Affairs Office, Department of Internal Affairs; Mr Mansoor Khwaja, Chief demographer, Statistics NZ; Mr Kefeng Chu, Strategic Ethnic Advisor, Police National Headquarters.

It is a matter of great pleasure that my wife Susan and I have been invited onto the Fo Guan Shan Buddhist Temple this morning. It is a place of beauty and peace and it is an ideal setting in which to discuss how New Zealand Police can engage with our increasingly diverse communities.

In every New Zealand setting whoever speaks should first establish a place to stand before the audience.

In this regard, I am speaking firstly as Governor-General of New Zealand, a role I have had the honour of holding now for almost one year.

I am also speaking today as a New Zealander born to migrant parents - thus the subject we are here to discuss has some personal relevance to me.

Indeed, my parents' own story of migration to New Zealand from Fiji mirrors that of many others. The challenges they faced in acclimatising to a new, and at that time sometimes unwelcoming country, were considerable.

But like so many others, they maintained a healthy balance between preservation of their own cultures, and adaptation to the cultures of their adopted country. I was the direct beneficiary of their determination to preserve and respect our culture of origin, and Susan and I have made every effort to foster in our own children a sense of their diverse cultural heritage.

The New Zealand that my parents first encountered was very different from the one we now recognise, and the challenges they faced as migrants were in many ways unique from those faced by migrants of today.

Most notably, they were joining a country which boasted far less existing diversity than it does today.

Whereas today a Fiji-Indian migrant might find an established community to support them in settling into a new life, in my parents' time, such a support network was less established.

They were not alone in this. At that time, New Zealand was only beginning to welcome people from countries outside its traditional source of migration. This meant there was little understanding, and even less celebration, of minority cultures.

I would argue that in 2007, much has changed for the better. We now have New Zealanders who hail from every corner of the earth, and we are now as likely to celebrate what makes us different as we are to celebrate what we have in common.

This positive change has, I believe, been brought about by our increasingly diverse population.

The recent Census, taken in 2006, confirmed that the meaning of what it is to be a New Zealander is evolving.

Today more than half of all children born in New Zealand are, to some extent, of Maori, Pacific or Asian descent.

Whereas 30 years ago, 86 percent of New Zealanders were European, today, just over two thirds of New Zealanders identify as European. Just under a third identify as Maori, Asian and Pacific.

We also now have larger communities from other parts of the world and New Zealanders with African, Latin American and Middle Eastern heritage are gaining a stronger presence.

This has an impact on our country at many levels. Notably, it means that a much broader range of religions and faiths are being practiced.

The 2006 Census supports this.

More than two million New Zealanders consider themselves to be of Christian faith. However, within this, only the numbers of Catholics and Methodists increased from the 2001 Census.

The biggest increase was in the number of non-Christian religions. For example those who associated themselves with Hinduism and Islam increased by 60 and 50 percent respectively.

Compare this with the 1901 census where 41 percent of respondents were affiliated with Church of England, 23 percent Presbyterian, 14 percent Catholic and 11 percent Methodist. These four Christian denominations equated to 89 percent of the population.

These evolutions to our ethnic make-up, and consequently, to the religions that are observed in New Zealand have consequences for New Zealand at many social, economic and political levels.

In today's context, this evolution has an impact on how we approach police work.

Perhaps more than any other New Zealander, a police officer will come into regular contact with New Zealanders of all ethnicities. As trusted leaders within our communities, this places a responsibility on our police officers to recognise the diverse needs of our people and understand how to respond appropriately to them.

A key to meeting this challenge is to understand what is important to each of these cultures, where their values lie and what motivates them to contribute positively to the communities in which they live.

Not only will a deeper understanding of this enable police to serve those communities well, but it will enable police to set a positive example to other New Zealanders who will, increasingly be required to work and live with people outside their own ethnicity.

Today's seminar will, I am advised, go some way towards deepening this understanding. I congratulate the New Zealand Police for their commitment to increasing their engagement with all people of New Zealand.

These endeavours reflects that we live in an inclusive and tolerant society and while there is still some way to go, we can be proud of progress we have made towards ensuring this is a welcoming and safe country for all New Zealanders.

I would like to come towards an end by quoting part of a poem of poet Hone Tuwhare:

Go river, go. To ocean seek your certain end.
Rise again to cloud;
to a mountain - to a mountain drinking from a tiny cup.
Ah, river
You are ocean: you are island.

The natural harmony of the different stages of the water cycle in this poem mirrors, I suggest, the efforts underway at all levels within our country to achieve harmony by encouraging culture and race to work together.

At my swearing-in ceremony in August last year, I acknowledged that New Zealand culture today reflects that we are a blend of many people. I acknowledged that while we honour our heritage, we also respect and celebrate new influences.

Almost one year later, I can reaffirm that we do indeed celebrate all our influences - both past and present. I can reaffirm that our future lies in our ability to take the very best of these influences to create an identity that is a harmonious composite of all our distinct parts.

New Zealand Police have a role to play in this and I wish you all the best for today.

I began speaking in all the New Zealand realm languages.  May I close by speaking in Maori, issuing greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours.

No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa