Covid19 Public Health Response Bill: Let's talk about injustice
There is a lot of korero flying around the social-media-verse regarding the issue of injustice.
The Level 2 restrictions have understandably been met with a wave of frustration. We’re hurting, we’re stressed, we’re scared about what the future will hold, our worlds have been rocked. Some of us are coming to grips with the fact that our jobs no longer exist. Others are going back to half pay, and demotions, as the roles we trained for have been disestablished. Still others are recovering from the roller coaster that was the funeral and tangi controversy, many of us facing the prospect of not being able to farewell our loved ones in the meaningful way we had hoped.
The times we find ourselves in are not easy.
And so understandably, we find ourselves holding a lot of collective anxiety and stress.
And so, it is sad to see, that during this time when many of us are exhausted and scared, that there are strong voices within our communities who have decided to prey on our fears to gain political power and influence.
The narratives spinning around the air waves are those of a totalitarian government that is using the pandemic to distort our democracy and create a communist state. Cries of injustice abound, and there is a lot of talk about the Government using the pandemic to cement their power and undermine our democracy.
This is a time when we need our leaders to show leadership, to be wise, and to seek to calm our anxieties and fears, not create new ones. Instead, certain sectors of the church, opposition parties, and parliamentary hopeful’s have exploited our fear to boost their own influence.
There is a lot going on right now, but this is not “communisim by stealth” and this is not the beginning of a totalitarian regime with a secret agenda to steal your rights and invade your home. This is also not the death of democracy, and it is certainly not an attack on the Christian faith. Everything that has happened thus far has been done legally and democratically.
Simply because some of us disagree with the decisions made, does not mean that we have reached the “death of our democracy”. In fact, that is one of the realities of democracy. We will not all agree.
And if we don’t agree, and we want to do something about it, then we can.
Not just through tweeting, or posting on your friend’s fb status, but through the democratic channels available to us.
But, that aside, one of the most disappointing things for me is the passion and outrage directed at the Public Health Response bill in particular.
I have my problems with the bill. My greatest concern is not the loss of my own liberties. Because, let’s be honest, I’m a straight, Pakeha, male. This bill, it is not going to come down hard on me.
No, I’m worried about my Māori brothers, who already deal with the abuse of police power on a daily basis. I’m concerned for my rangatahi, who are always an easy target for exploitation. I’m worried about my whanau in the poor and vulnerable communities of South and West Auckland, who bill or no bill, already know too well the feeling of Police brutality and violence.
But, then, the Public Health Response Bill won’t change much for them.
It is just another iteration of their current lived experience.
Already, the poor, are exploited, already māori are victims of police abuse. This bill doesn’t create injustice, it just gives it a new licence.
So, when I see my Māori whanau concerned about this legislation, I get it, at least as much as I can having not lived it myself. Māori have good reason to distrust the Crown. They have lost much, and have been unjustly and inhumanely treated, not simply in our past, but also very much within our present.
And yet, when I turn to my Pakeha whanau, I can’t help but feel that the reaction to this is yet another example of our privilege. Statements from pakeha concerned about this bill being “a breach of our human rights” and calls from the Pakeha church for the people of God to “stand against this injustice” ring a bit hollow.
Regardless of what you think about the bill, democracy didn’t die with it’s creation, and injustice wasn’t voted into Government in 2017.
Injustice is laced into the DNA of this nation.
If we had time we could speak in detail about the atrocities of our past. Of the children and woman murdered at the hands of British soldiers, of the whenua ripped out from under the feet of those who drew life from Her, of the countless promises broken, as the Crown has advanced Her own desires, at the expense of Her commitment to Te Tiriti.
But, to grasp the level of injustice in this nation, we have no need scour the past.
There is enough for us to examine within our present.
According to the Child and Youth Mortality Review Committee, kids living in poverty, are three times more likely to die, than other kids. Some of the factors for this are due to our whanau living in overcrowded and unsuitable housing, with many living without enough to pay for doctors visits or medical treatment.
When looking at the demographics, Stats NZ found that it is our Māori and Pasfika kids who are more likely to be victims of poverty, than our Pakeha kids.
These issues could have been solved at a strike of a pen. Last year the Welfare advisory group (WEAG) recommended that benefits be raised to a liveable level, this would have immediately raised a vast number of our kids out of poverty.
But, the government didn’t follow these recommendations.
Why?
Because the political will doesn’t exist.
You and I don’t care enough to push this through parliament.
So, when the WEAG’s report was released last year, the activists, activated, the social orgs preached the virtues of transformation, and the government gave the conservative and liberal white middle, what they wanted. Kindness, without transformation.
Māori also make up over 50% of the prison population, they’re overrepresented in our suicide rates, discriminated against in our justice system, and disproportionately present within our homeless community.
If we had time, we could go on to speak in detail of how colonization and white supremacy has infected this nation, and done violence to Māori, systematically undermining their sovereignty, and upholding oppressive structures that violate their freedoms, and affect their wellbeing.
In the face of māori injustice, and brown suffering, no government – since the conception of our partnership with māori – has moved with the urgency necessary to address their exploitation or protect their freedoms.
So, when māori speak of their concerns regarding government control, and their wariness of increased police powers, like I said, I get it.
And yet, I can’t help but feel that cries from Pakeha of “injustice” ring hollow.
Sure, we’re all political activists now we feel that the government is encroaching on our rights. This could affect us, so we feel the need to resist. To stand up, to be counted, to fight.
But, we’ve got brown kids dying from preventable illnesses because their whanau are living in poverty. We’ve got teenagers choosing to leave home, and suffer the violence and trauma of the streets, because they’re worried about being a burden to their parents. We’ve got brown bodies lying in graves, the design of a white system that cares less about their lives than it does about the retention of power and another term in office.
There is real injustice in this country.
But, Pakeha are not experiencing it.
There is real persecution in this country.
But, it is not directed at the Pakeha church.
Injustice is a disease which has infected our nation since its inception.
It is killing the soul of pakeha. It is ending the lives of māori.
So, let us not speak of our own “oppression”, let us not assume to speak of “injustice” for we have no real knowledge of it.
Instead let us turn our faces to those who have suffered in the wake of our silence. Let us raise our voices for those who have been systematically silenced and ignored for the sake of our own comfort and ego.
Because, until we do, until we care for brown lives, as much as we do for our own perceived loss of liberty, there will be no Justice in this nation. Our people will continue to be oppressed, and our protests will do nothing more than magnify the privilege we hold.
A.J. Hendry is a Laidlaw College graduate, and now a Youth Development Worker and housing advocate, working in the Youth Housing and Homelessness space. He leads a service supporting rangatahi experiencing homelessness and is also an advocate working collectively to end youth homelessness in Aotearoa. He is also the curator and creator of When Lambs Are Silent. Though we try to keep up with all our comment’s and feedback, we do sometimes struggle to monitor all platforms. If you do want to engage in the conversation join us on facebook and find the relevant post or connect directly with A.J on his facebook page here, twitter here, or Instagram here.