Justice Minister Amy Adams commenting on the Human Rights Amendment Bill that passed its second reading in parliament yesterday says-

“Currently the Human Rights Act requires there to be Commissioners for Race Relations and Equal Opportunities but does not allow for the creation of new formal leadership positions in other areas of human rights,”

“This Bill will address that inflexibility by revising the structure of the Commission and giving it stronger powers to address these issues as they arise in order to ensure we continue to meet our international and domestic human rights obligations.”

The Bill revises the structure of the Commission to:

• Provide that dedicated commissioners be appointed to lead work in the priority areas of race relations, equal employment opportunities and disability rights.
• Enable the Chief Commissioner to formally designate commissioners to lead work in other areas after consultation with the Minister of Justice and the other commissioners.
• Increase flexibility to appoint more full-time commissioners, while retaining the ability to appoint suitably part-time qualified candidates who are not available to work full-time.

The Bill also revises the Commission’s functions to reflect and preserve its independence in activities it already undertakes, such as promoting New Zealand’s compliance with international human rights obligations, and expressing opinions on any situation where human rights may be infringed, including commenting on state sector practices, Bills before the House and Acts passed by Parliament.

IOW more over powerful paper shuffling bureaucrats whose main mission is to interfere in our lives. Or worse, to divide us into socially warring groups, so that we’re more malleable to governance by Marxists and Progressives with their idiot destructive ideas.

It galls me so much to see these petty tyrannical bureaucrats coming up with more and more of this unwanted and unnecessary legislation but it galls me even more to see National embracing it rather than doing anything to stop it.

These bastards have to be stopped somehow.