Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
There was broad agreement that the old economy had to be restructured, but the re-
forms carried a heavy price. The old social guarantees were no longer as sure. Today,
New Zealanders work long hours for lower wages than their Australian cousins would
ever tolerate. Compared with other Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Devel-
opment (OECD) nations, NZ family incomes are low, child poverty rates are high and the
gap between rich and poor is widening.
Yet there is a dynamism about NZ that was rare in the 'golden weather' years before
the reforms. NZ farmers take on the world without the massive subsidies of yore, and
Wellington's inner city - once virtually closed after dark by oppressive licensing laws -
now thrives with great bars and restaurants.
Until 2010, NZ was rated second in the Global Peace Index behind Iceland. In 2011 it
dropped to third place behind Denmark - something to do with all those
haka
(war
dances) performed during the Rugby World Cup, perhaps?
As with the economic reforms, the 'Treaty process' of redress and reconciliation with
Maori makes some New Zealanders uneasy, more in their uncertainty about its extent
than that it has happened at all. The Maori population sat somewhere between 85,000
and 110,000 at the time of first European contact 200 years ago. Disease and warfare
subsequently decimated the population, but a high birth rate now sees about 15% of New
Zealanders (599,000 people) identify as Maori, and that proportion is likely to grow.
The implication of the Treaty is one of partnership between Maori and the British
Crown, together forging a bicultural nation. After decades of attempted cultural assimila-
tion it's now accepted in most quarters that the indigenous culture has a special and sep-
arate status within the country's ethnic mix. For example, Maori is an official language
and there is a separate electoral roll granting Maori guaranteed parliamentary seats.
People born in other countries make up 25.2% of NZ residents. Of these, the main
places of origin are England (21.5%), China (8.9%), India (6.7%), Australia (6.3%),
South Africa (5.4%), Fiji (5.3%) and Samoa (5.1%).
Yet room has had to be found for the many New Zealanders of neither British nor
Maori heritage. In each new wave of immigration there has been a tendency to demonise
before gradually accepting and celebrating what the new cultures have to offer. This
happened with the Chinese in the mid-19th century, Croatians at the beginning of the
20th, Pacific Islanders in the 1970s and, most recently, the Chinese again in the 1990s.
