Kate Kearins delves into why a commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion is more important than ever.
In the United States, a growing number of companies are either pulling back from, watering down or removing their policies and commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). The move follows the July 2023 decision by the US Supreme Court that outlawed affirmative action in college admissions and the return in January of President Trump to the White House.
Among the highest profile of the big companies that are moving away from DEI is Meta, whose founder, Mark Zuckerberg, said fact checking and content moderation got to the point that it “destroyed trust” in the platform. His pronouncements echo those of Robby Starbuck, the anti-DEI activist who is widely followed on X and whose threats of mass boycott have helped persuade companies such Ford, Walmart, and McDonalds to reject or claw back their DEI policies. Starbuck claims “Equity is the enemy of excellence.”
But what about here in Aotearoa New Zealand? A quick Google search (Keywords: “NZ response to DEI”) shows ongoing commitments, through organisation-wide policies, guidelines, and practices, to help ensure people from diverse backgrounds are not just “tolerated” but are proactively welcomed and supported, and their diversity – be it based on ethnicity, culture, socioeconomics, age, ability and/or gender – is to be acknowledged and celebrated.
“Companies overtly monitoring, analysing and reporting on DEI initiatives include universities, government agencies … and our major banks, insurance companies and telcos.
Those companies overtly monitoring, analysing and reporting on DEI initiatives include universities, government agencies such as Stats NZ and MBIE, Sport NZ, and our major banks, insurance companies and telcos.
In fact, so many of NZ’s large and complex organisations have DEI commitments that an anti-DEI website has been created to spotlight where you can be served a “dose of wokeness”.
Why does DEI matter in the NZ workplace? The website of Te Kawa Mataaho | Public Service Commission aptly explains: “When we attract, retain, recognise, value, and develop the skills and experiences of people across all dimensions of diversity … there are multiple benefits, including:
- Diversity of thought to better reflect, understand and contribute to policy, services and outcomes for New Zealand communities.
- Improved ability to engage with stakeholders, Iwi leaders, civil society and community leaders to reflect their perspectives into our work and advice.
- More diverse and inclusive leadership, which leads to better quality decision-making, influence and leadership of the public sector, and strengthening organisational performance.
- A good employer and work environment which is fair, equitable and inclusive and enables our people to thrive and perform at their best.
- Lower gender and ethnic pay gaps.
Beyond the workplace, we can see examples of what happens when DEI approaches are done well – and not so well. In the early days of the pandemic, we saw how various public initiatives aimed, but failed, to support some of our most vulnerable communities – including Māori, Pacific, and many people of lower socio-economic status. Eventually, providers moved to work directly with community leaders to discern and then deliver effective communications and access to vaccines. It was a life-saving pivot for many, both within and outside those vulnerable cohorts. As a nation, we largely pulled together to keep Covid-19 at bay.
Earlier, too, in the wake of the 2019 Christchurch mosque shootings, we experienced an outpouring of solidarity for Muslims in our country. Then-Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s ‘They are us’ line became a national catch cry – and was later voted NZ’s quote of 2019.
Although not without dissenters, many of us have, at base, an ethos of care and an openness to difference that our country can be proud of – and across our country and companies, we are identifying and often embracing more “difference” than ever. Clearly, there are behaviours we should not tolerate; but I’d argue that, even in rejecting those behaviours we must always seek to understand the people who exhibit them.
Why is a commitment to DEI more important than ever?
Increasingly, at home and overseas, we hear calls for ‘one law for everyone’; we see push back against initiatives and strategies that acknowledge historic and systemic disadvantage (if not outright discrimination) of one group by another.
While the claim that ‘everyone is equal under the law’ is a noble goal, it is divorced from the reality of inequitable access to education, employment, housing, health care – the acknowledged fundamentals of life. Indeed, many of NZ’s DEI policies and initiatives are founded in legislation that reflects our country’s obligations and commitments to Te Tiriti o Waitangi and the Human Rights Act 1993.
As 2025 unfolds, I find myself thinking more and more frequently of the often-cited cartoon that shows the key, yet easily overlooked, distinctions between equity and equality:
Image courtesy of Interaction Institute for Social Change | Artist: Angus Maguire.
Kate Kearins is Professor of Management and Pro Vice Chancellor Business, Economics and Law at Auckland University of Technology.