Ethnic Affairs

HON GEORGE HAWKINS MINISTER FOR ETHNIC AFFAIRS
12 February 2001
Chinese New Year Celebration
Prime Minister Helen Clark, Mr Speaker, my colleagues and friends, to the many leaders of the Chinese community both here in Wellington and throughout New Zealand.
Gung hay fat choy!
Chinese New Year is the oldest and the most important festival in the Chinese community. For five thousand years this auspicious occasion has been celebrated.
Tonight we are here at parliament to celebrate Chinese New Year 2002 - the year of the Horse.
And this event is one that is absolutely positive. It is a wonderful function and I am pleased to join with the Prime Minister to host you this evening.
I thank the Rt Hon Helen Clark for her speech and for her support.
Everyday you learn something.
I've been fortunate enough to learn much about the lives of many industrious and outstanding Chinese New Zealanders.
But more sobering has been my education with respect to the experiences of early Chinese settlers who first came to New Zealand in the 1860s gold rush.
Those settlers came and worked on the goldfields of central Otago. I have previously had the good fortune to visit Arrowtown in central Otago, where museum exhibits portray the hard and rugged lifestyle endured by those early settlers.
You can see some of those early shelters when you visit travel to that part of New Zealand.
But the hardship of those settlers was not just expressed in the harsh climate, or the backbreaking work.
The hardship was expressed through the systematic discrimination against the Chinese community through a harsh and selective immigration policy.
The poll tax, or entry tax, satisfied the government's desire to restrict Chinese immigrants to New Zealand.
That legislation was legal in those days. That tax was lawful and considered appropriate at that time. Thankfully such policies are totally inappropriate by today's standards.
People such as Harvey Wu, Esther Fung, David Wong and Professor Kwan Goh, raised the issue. As I've travelled around the country I've talked to a lot of people over the last 18 months.
The issue is not so much about dates and times.
The issue is the injustice and deprivation imposed on those early Chinese settlers. It is about the separation of families, it is about the poverty of indentured settlers who were forced to work for years to earn enough money to pay off their tax let alone earn a living.
I would ask that we all think about those early Chinese settlers and the contribution that they made to our nation's development. Tonight's apology is to those early Chinese settlers who paid the poll tax.
Unfortunately the issue has been allowed to fester for too long. The previous government knew about this issue, and after much reflection, relegated it to the "too-hard" basket.
We are not going to repeat that mistake.
I am proud to be part of a government that has taken this important step towards reconciliation between the Chinese community and the Crown.
I believe remorse improves the nation's spirit and health.
How appropriate it is that we can use Chinese New Year as the occasion to make this important announcement.
Those early Chinese settlers displayed a hard work ethic. Their descendant families and our more recent Chinese immigrants continue to display that work ethic.
Chinese New Zealanders have long had a well-earned reputation as being industrious, creative, and entrepreneurial, and with a respect for traditional values.
Long may it continue!
Chinese New Year - the year of the Horse - provides an opportunity for us all to work together and to begin a new session of partnership and renewal.
The spirit of the New Year is a sincere wish that you can all enjoy happiness, good health and success throughout the year.
Ladies and gentlemen thank you very much.