The Race Relations Commissioner says that New Zealanders still have a lot of work to do when it comes to treating one another with respect.
Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy. Photo: HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION
It comes after the New Zealand First leader, Winston Peters, told supporters that "two wongs don't make a wight", when referring to both National and Labour's handling of foreign land sales.
It's the second criticism by Dame Susan Devoy over politicians' comments about race in two weeks.
Last month, ACT party leader, Jamie Whyte, said that Māori were legally privileged.
He also compared Māori to French aristocrats, which Dame Susan said was grotesque and inflammatory.
The commissioner said that Winston Peters' comments, where he poked fun at Asians, were not funny, and Mr Peters needed to know thatit was an outdated rhetoric that belonged in the past.
She said people in New Zealand still had a lot of work to do when it came to treating one another with respect, and there was still, quite clearly, a lot of work to do.
