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During this first term, the government pursued a number of reforms. The controversial Employment Contracts Act was repealed, replaced by an Employment Relations Act more friendly to unions and collective bargaining; a state-owned bank, Kiwibank, was created at the behest of the Alliance; a majority stake in the national airline, Air New Zealand was purchased; and the public health sector was reorganised with the re-establishment of partly elected District Health Boards. "Closing the gaps," an affirmative action strategy targeting socio-economic inequalities between Māori and Pacific Island ethnic groups and non-Māori, was a particularly controversial reform. The policy was widely criticised for unfairly privileging Māori, leading to calls for "one standard of citizenship" for all New Zealanders.

= Closing the gaps = From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

"Closing the Gaps" was the name given to the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand's policy for assisting socio-economically disadvantaged Māori and Pacific Island ethnic groups, through specially targeted social programmes. The phrase came to prominence as a slogan of the Labour Party in the 1999 election and was implemented as a policy initiative in the 2000 Budget.

Overview
The aim of Closing the Gaps was to reduce the most visible disparities in socio-economic status and opportunity between Māori and Pasifika and non-Māori. The policy had a social development and social inclusion approach to social policy. Closing the gaps aimed to balance individual and collective rights and responsibilities by integrating Māori and Pasifika more extensively into the paid labour market.

Context
The socio-economic gaps between Māori and non-Māori stem from a history of colonialism. Land alienation and the Māori labour migration resulted in structural inequalities in socio-economic status between Māori and non-Māori, a central concern of Closing the gaps. These inequalities were exacerbated by the Neoliberal policy reforms pursued by the Fourth Labour and National Governments of New Zealand. Increasing inequality throughout the 1980's and 90's disproportionately effected Māori and Pasifika who were over represented in the bottom of New Zealand's socio-economic landscape.

Closing the gaps was a policy typical of thirdway political philosophy, popular throughout the West in the early 2000's. Thirdway politics reconciles neoliberalism with social democratic ideals to mitigate the inequalities caused by neoliberal economic and political systems. Hence, Closing the gaps is recognizant of the global political context it inhabited.

Closing the gaps was a direct response to the findings of the 1998 Te Puni Kōkiri report "Progress Towards Closing the Social and Economic Gaps Between Māori and non-Māori," which outlined these accumulating inequalities Māori and Pasifika encountered. The report's overall findings revealed the gaps between Māori and non-Māori in education, employment, economic and health status were significant. Furthermore, the report revealed these gaps had stabilized or were widening, not reducing. The Closing the gaps report was the first government publication to measure inequalities between Māori and non-Māori, both setting a bench mark for policy, and providing an impetus for the Fifth Labour-led Government to reduce inequality.

Policy Outline

 * Investment in schools, polytechnics, universities, housing agencies and hospitals.
 * Investment in Māori and Pasifika controlled and managed organisations.
 * $12 million in additional funding to Te Puni Kokiri over four years to improve the New Zealand Government's information base and monitoring capability in order to more effectively measure outcomes of social policy programmes for Māori.
 * Departmental chief executives required to disclose in their annual reports the steps taken towards closing socio-economic gaps between Māori and Pasifika and non-Māori in their departments.
 * $114 million towards capacity building initiatives for Māori and Pasifika communities.
 * $8 million in additional funding to the Māori Land Court over four years.
 * Creation of a provisional fund of $50 million for Closing the gaps initiatives developed between budgets.

Public Opinion
Closing the gaps was widely criticized for unfairly privileging Maori and threatening social cohesion. In June, 2000, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, described the program as "social apartheid". The responses from the opposition and the public reflected the perspective that Māori rights under the Treaty of Waitangi were special privileges that actively excluded non-Māori from their rights and privileges as New Zealand citizens. The perspective that Māori were being unfairly privileged by Closing the gaps gained popularity because the policy was portrayed as undermining an equality of opportunity approach to social policy popular in New Zealand.

Perspectives on Closing the gaps was more varied within the Maori community. While the benefits Māori communities received from the policy led to Closing the Gaps being perceived positively by many Māori, critics argued the policy was ultimately damaging for Māori because it perpetuated negative stereotypes which normalised and reinforced Pakeha dominance. Māori Labour party politicians promoted the policy as providing greater autonomy and self-determination for Māori under the partnership principle of the Treaty of Waitangi. Contrastingly, it was argued by encouraging assimilation to Western values Closing the gaps continued to marginalise Māori culture by portraying Māoridom, and consequently Māori socio-economic disadvantage as deviant. Additionally, a focus on individual responsibility for reducing socio-economic gaps, was criticised for failing to recognise the governments historical role as the excluding agent causing inequalities between Māori and non-Māori.

Outcomes
Six months after the Labour Party came to power in late 1999, the term was no longer used in official documents. Opposition politicians observed that the new government still had a "Closing the Gaps" policy objective, but no longer referred to the policy by that name. Closing the gaps was re-branded by the 5th Labour-led Government as "reducing inequalities" in an attempt to make the policy more popular with the public.

Over the term of the 1999–2008 Labour government, social statistics for Maori and Pacific islanders did generally improve; however, the statistics for Pakeha New Zealanders showed a greater improvement, resulting in the 'gaps' actually increasing. Closing the gaps failed to reduce socio-economic inequalities between Māori and non-Māori and did not resolve structural inequalities that socio-economically excluded Māori from mainstream society.

In response to the unpopularity of Closing the gaps, the opposition party National unsuccessfully campaigned on a commitment to one strand of citizenship for all New Zealanders. In 2004 opposition leader Don Brash suggested all policies privileging Māori should be abandoned, calling for abolishment of the Māori seats and Māori claims to customary title under the Treaty of Waitangi. Closing the gaps popularised a rhetoric of privilege in response to Treaty rights.

See also[edit source]

 * Closing the gap – Australian policy
 * Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand