Sister Cities New Zealand Conference Closing Address

May I begin by greeting everyone in the languages of the realm of New Zealand - English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Niuean, Tokelauan and New Zealand Sign Language.

Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu, Taloha Ni and as it is the morning and the sun has risen (Sign)

May I specifically greet you: Bill Woods, Acting President of Sister Cities New Zealand; Your Worship Kevin Winters, Mayor of Rotorua; a number of fellow Mayors Frana Cardno, David Ogden and Jenny Brash, for example; Distinguished Guests otherwise; Ladies and Gentlemen.

Thank you for inviting my wife Susan and I to attend the annual conference of Sister Cities New Zealand in Rotorua today.  It is good to keep being invited to the Bay of Plenty having recently attended the inaugural Bay of Plenty Military Tattoo and undertaken a detailed visit to the Rotorua Region in September last year.

New Zealand is becoming a highly diverse nation—ethnically, culturally and religiously.  The last Census in 2006 revealed that about a quarter of New Zealanders were born overseas.  A century ago, most of those foreign-born Kiwis would have hailed from Britain or Ireland.  Today, New Zealanders born in those two isles make up little more than a quarter of foreign-born Kiwis—the same proportion as from Asia. My appointment as Governor-General in part reflects that diversity.  While I was born in New Zealand, my parents were born in Fiji and my grandparents were born in India.

In terms of religious affiliation, this increasing diversity is also apparent.  The last Census showed that while slightly more than half of New Zealanders said they were Christians—a small drop on five years earlier—a third professed no faith at all, a significant increase on five years earlier. 

Against these changes, and reflecting immigration from Asia, there were significant rises in those affiliated to non-Christian religions. While starting from much smaller bases, the number of Sikhs, Hindus or Muslims all increased by more than 50 percent.

Compared to even a century ago, New Zealanders live in a highly interconnected world.  Communication technology and high-speed convenient air travel means that there is more contact between people of different cultures and ethnicities than ever before.  As my own family history illustrates, migration flows between countries have also increased.  Events like the recent global credit crunch and the Asian economic crisis of the late 1990s have also made clear that world economies are also very interlinked.  And as scientists researching climate change have found, our world is not a collection of isolated local or regional environments, but one large global system, the future of which could decide the fate of us all.

Ironically, one of the trends of this greater global awareness—the sense that the world and all who live in it are interdependent—has not been to create a homogenous global culture, but rather it has made us even more aware, than ever before, of just how culturally diverse we are.

I am one of many who believe this diversity has the ability to enrich our society, culture and economy. 

But diversity also poses challenges.  As ongoing ethnic, cultural and religious disputes and clashes throughout the world have shown, just because there is greater cultural contact, it does not necessarily follow that people will show greater tolerance or sensitivity to others.  Greater contact can equally lead to a retreat to the security of one's own cultural, religious or ethnic zone or an assertive outward emphasis on nationalism.

New Zealand has not been immune from these global trends as issues such as the wearing of burqa in court, the desecration of Jewish headstones and the publication of the Mohammad cartoons have shown.

Even so, we have been spared the worst excesses of cultural and ethnic conflict that has caused so much suffering elsewhere.  I believe this has been due in large part to the tolerant nature of most New Zealanders, regardless of their cultural background.  We have long been known as a tolerant people, with a live-and-let-live attitude to life and to others.  In other words, so long as others do not intrude on our space, we've been happy enough to let people get on with their lives.

There is some merit to this approach but it hides a hidden danger because tolerance is effectively passive.  Without active communication, the opportunity for real understanding is unlikely to occur and stereotypes can often go unchallenged.

When times are relatively peaceful this has not been a great issue.  But it can be noticed that when contentious issues related to ethnic, religious or cultural custom have been aired in the New Zealand media, the less than informed comment aired on talkback radio, blogs and in letters-to-the-editor has indicated a deeper underlying lack of understanding. 

Communication across cultural and religious differences will not be fraught or stressful if we are prepared to get to know people as they are, not as we conceive them to be.  Moving from tolerance to real understanding requires interaction—to meet, to talk and to socialise with others who are different from us.  It also means getting to know people as individuals on their own terms, and not as automatons whose behaviour is dictated by cultural imperatives. 

One way that these links can be made and improved is through sister city relationships.  As many of you are elected mayors and councillors, you will no doubt be aware that sister city relationships can often be a source of local controversy.  New Zealand ratepayers, keen to ensure that their rates are well spent, and in tandem with local media, have sometimes questioned the value of sister city relationships.

It is right that expenditure should be scrutinised and it is right that decisions about sister city relationships should be openly made after careful consideration, investigation and public input.  Such scrutiny and debate is at the heart of local democracy, freedom of expression and a free press. 

But the scrutiny should not deter councils from investigating sister city relationships which I believe have great value from many perspectives. Signing up to a sister city relationship, however, is something that should never be undertaken lightly.  There needs to be some sense of common interest and I am aware that some councils have sensibly entered into a more informal "friendly relationship," an engagement period so to speak, to test the waters before entering into a formal sister city relationship.

Just like any relationship in life, for sister city relationships to work and to provide benefits to both sides, they must be based on a breadth of contacts.  The temptation, especially when attempting to justify such relationships, is to push the economic and business benefits from the outset.  While such links are important, they are unlikely to develop sustainable long-term relationships beyond one-off projects unless they are placed in the context of wider social and cultural links.  More often than not, successful and strong business links will often develop after there have been visits in each direction by education, cultural, social and sporting groups. 

From examining the excellent Sister Cities New Zealand website, I understand that local authorities in New Zealand have relationships with cities in Australia, Canada, the United States, China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Denmark, Belgium, Britain, Ireland, France, French Polynesia, Germany, Greece and the Netherlands.  The reasons for the links are varied, reflecting cultural, language, historical and trading links.

Examining the list of sister city relationships, one could not help but notice that with the exception of couple of links with French Polynesia, that the rest were totally centred in North America, North-East Asia and Europe.  I wonder, given the increasingly diverse nature of New Zealand's population, if it is time for New Zealand local government and Sister Cities New Zealand to look somewhat wider - the Pacific and elsewhere in Asia being two examples. 

One country I have some knowledge of is India, the home of my grandparents.  India is now a significant trading partner with New Zealand and since the 1990s, sustained high growth rates have set the stage for India to become one of the world's largest economies. Time magazine last year forecast that by 2050, only China and the United States would surpass India in terms of economic growth. 

New Zealand and India have quite a few things in common, including use of the English language, a Westminster parliamentary democracy, a common law-based legal system, Commonwealth ties and sporting affiliations in cricket and hockey that would surely provide some basis for investigating sister city links.  I use the example of India, but there are many others where profitable links—and I use the word in its widest sense—could be investigated - large and small - Indonesia, Samoa, Sri Lanka, the Cook Islands.

In conclusion, I thank you again for the invitation to speak to your conference and to provide the closing address.  I believe that given New Zealand's growing ethnic, cultural and religious diversity, that sister city relationships can play an important role in developing greater cultural and religious understanding. 

While no sister city relationship should ever be entered into lightly or without careful consideration and investigation, it is my wero or challenge to Sister Cities New Zealand to encourage and promote links with cities in nations outside those that the New Zealand councils have traditionally focused upon.  As the American writer, William Chase said in 2004:

"Diversityis not casual liberal tolerance of anything not yourself. It is not polite accommodation. Instead, diversity is, in action, the sometimes painful awareness that other people, other races, other voices, other habits of mind have as much integrity of being, as much claim on the world as you do And I urge you, (wrote Chase) amid all the differences present to the eye and mind, to reach out to create the bond thatwill protect us all".  He concluded with the opinion, "We are all meant to be here together."

And on that note, I will close in New Zealand's first language, Maori, by offering greetings and wishing you good health and fortitude in your endeavours. No reira, tena koutou, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.