As diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives make global headlines, 1News reporter Emma Hildesley unpacks what they are and how they impact Kiwis.
With a swift flick of his pen, US President Donald Trump has already ordered the dismantling of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives within the federal government, and its contractors.
Immediately after taking office, Trump ordered all government staff working on DEI to be put on immediate paid administrative leave, and in one order said the programmes were “dangerous, demeaning and immoral”.
He terminated:
- All DEI, DEIA, and “environmental justice” offices and positions (including but not limited to “Chief Diversity Officer” positions).
- All “equity action plans,” “equity” actions, initiatives, or programs, “equity-related” grants or contracts.
- All DEI or DEIA performance requirements for employees, contractors, or grantees.
Then, as the nation reeled from the deadliest American aviation disaster in more than two decades, President Donald Trump baselessly blamed diversity initiatives for undermining air safety.
How has this affected corporate America?
Even before Trump took office on January 20, some US companies had begun to rollback their DEI initiatives, in expectation of his policies.
Tech giant Meta was one of the first high-profile companies to announce it was ending its equity and inclusion training programs and totally disbanding a team that was focused on DEI — and it’s not the only one doing so.
The Guardian reports an internal memo from founder Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that “the legal and policy landscape surrounding diversity, equity and inclusion efforts in the United States is changing”.
Other companies to move away, or scale back DEI included fast food chain McDonald’s, automaker Ford, Walmart, Lowe’s and farm equipment maker John Deere. All cited conservative backlash or changing social and political environments in their memo announcements.
Removing these programmes from within the federal government was one of the central campaign promises under Trump’s administration. The move has drawn some criticism from civil rights advocates in the United States due to the adverse, long-term impact it could have on the federal workforce, both psychologically and economically.
Why does DEI matter?
DEI programmes aim to promote participation in workplaces by people from a range of backgrounds, and specifically attempt to promote opportunities for a number of traditionally underrepresented minority groups.
In Aotearoa New Zealand, many of the DEI initiatives that we take for granted today (for example, paid parental leave) started out as nothing more than controversial ideas. Many organisations now actively promote and boast their commitment to upholding, and expanding existing programmes in place.
And there are proven benefits to doing so. As Te Kawa Mataaho Public Service Commission says: “When we attract, retain, recognise, value, and develop the skills and experiences of people across all dimensions of diversity (e.g. gender, ethnicity, disability, sexuality, age), there are multiple benefits” to wider society.
How can Trump dismantle DEI so swiftly?
Executive orders are official documents through which the President of the United States manages the operations of the federal government, which does not require congressional approval.
The legislated and legal protections in place for people in the US remain, but what Trump’s doing is instructing staff inside federal agencies and departments to get organised to comply with these legal requirements, and dismantling the way DEI is implemented and actioned within federal agencies.
For example; staff support networks for marginalised groups would no longer be funded or supported under the Trump administration (despite social science that indicates people feel more motivated and experience a heightened sense of belonging when sharing their ideas and experiences).
How does DEI impact New Zealand?
University of Auckland’s Pro Vice-Chancellor Equity, Cathy Stinear, told 1News she was “dismayed and unsurprised” by the developments in the US.
“Because President Trump and the Republican Party have been clearly signalling this direction for several years, [I’m] not surprised. Quite dismayed, because I think it’s attempting to turn back the clock in many respects,” she said.
She’s referring to DEI roots in the Civil Rights Act of 1964, in which President Lyndon Johnson signed an executive order barring employment discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex or national origin.
As the years went on, social and political upheavals including the 2020 murder of George Floyd and ensuing Black Lives Matter protests saw corporate America respond swiftly with renewed and public commitments to DEI. These were then scaled back following a 2023 Supreme Court ruling that prompted widespread layoffs.
“Our own Bill of Rights Act gives us all the rights to freedom from discrimination on the basis of lots of different characteristics like our ethnicity and nationality, our sex, our sexuality, whether or not we experience disability, all of those different types of things, our gender,” Stinear said.
Is DEI mandatory in NZ workplaces?
No. But New Zealand does have laws in place against discrimination, such as:
Human Rights Act 1993: This act is the overarching framework against discrimination on various dimensions of individual identity (such as race, gender, age, disability, sexual orientation, and religious beliefs).
There is also the application of the Human Rights Act in some specific contexts, such as:
Employment Relations Act 2000: This act promotes good faith in employment relationships and provides protections against unfair dismissal and discrimination in the workplace.
Equal Pay Act 1972: This act aims to eliminate pay discrimination.
Health and Safety at Work Act 2015: This act requires employers to provide a safe and healthy work environment, which includes addressing issues related to workplace bullying, harassment, and discrimination.
Could NZ companies follow the US?
Diversity Works New Zealand chief executive Maretha Smit told 1News that for any organisation to operate in another country outside of their home territory, they have to abide by the laws of that country.
“But seeing that we don’t have a law that require ‘DEI programmes’ in New Zealand, the US corporates can for any reason and at any stage decide to terminate their DEI programmes,” she said.
“I think they would be ill-advised to do that as a reaction on Trump’s orders, as I can’t see how those orders have any legitimacy and standing in relation to how organisations want to run their businesses.”
She said New Zealand had already seen a clampdown on DEI in the public sector “under the guise of ‘wasteful expenditure”,” but said this was not mimicked in the corporate sector.
“And that tells me that the smart executives know that these programmes make business sense.”
In the US, Trump’s orders could only extend as far as the Federal Government, meaning Trump could not tell private businesses to stop internal workplace culture programmes through an executive order.
“People have their own reasons for doing things and maybe the strategic advantage for them in cosying up to the newly elected President is what they think is most important at the moment – like we have seen in some segments of the technology sector,” she said.
Asked whether New Zealand should be concerned by a ‘domino effect’ of New Zealand branches of global companies bending to overseas pressure, Cathy Stinear said she believed we had quite a different social, political and historical context compared to the US.
“While I do think it’s important to keep a watching eye on what’s happening over there at the moment — because they’re an incredibly influential country politically as well as socially and economically — we can also have the confidence to know exactly who we are and not feel the need to just fall in behind a new president who wants to unravel 60 plus years of important social progress.
“We can see it, and we can understand it, but we shouldn’t feel any pressure to follow suit,” she said.
How does Te Tiriti o Waitangi factor into DEI?
Aotearoa New Zealand is distinct from the US because of Te Tiriti o Waitangi, which provides a constitutional foundation upon which the Crown’s human rights obligations rest.
According to the Good Employer Matrix, as implied by Te Tiriti o Waitangi, all New Zealanders access their rights to workplace equity via the Crown — currently provided for by the Human Rights Act, Employment Relations Act and Bill of Rights, through the authority of the Crown.
Māori access these rights (for example: to not be discriminated against at work) via the same Crown legal system that applies to all citizens.
Smit said that, as far as she was aware, New Zealand was “the only country with a formal agreement between the Western expansionists and the indigenous people of the land” which provided a unique opportunity to leverage the best from both world views.
How are Te Tiriti principles applied in NZ workplaces?
Many workplaces in Aotearoa already take steps to honour Te Tiriti in workplaces, through demonstrating an appreciation of kāwanatanga (governance), rangatiratanga (sovereignty) and other key Te Tiriti concepts in their work.
The Tertiary Education Commission’s careers website says these are applied through include teaching staff about Te Tiriti, encouraging workers to learn and use te reo Māori and tikanga Māori, building good relationships with Māori communities, organisations and businesses and learning from Māori about how to run their businesses in a way that respects Māori values and culture.
Smit said as an organisation, Diversity Works believed Te Tiriti “plays a massive role in how we look at workplace culture and inclusion”.
“We have over the past few years seen great work in organisations to learn more about the Māori worldview. But mostly this work has been framed around building cultural competency and achieving better outcomes for Māori which are incredibly important considerations given the history in the country. But it is about so much more than this.
“We are still a long way from really benefitting from the Māori worldview, because we are so tied up in arguing about Te Tiriti, that we don’t get on with building a society where everyone can contribute to our collective success.”
Cathy Stinear said the framework of the Treaty sets up how New Zealanders can live together and work together, which shares the “fundamental concepts that drive a lot of DEI work”.
“It’s about respect for each other, respecting those differences and finding the common ground where we can work together for everyone’s benefit,” she said.
She said people who were vocal opponents of DEI initiatives likely did not understand that “equality is not equity”.
“They seem to think that if a group of people is being offered some kind of support or alternative way of achieving something, that it means they must be losing out on something. And so that creates a sense of loss and grievance, and that drives a lot of opposition.
“We have different ways of thinking, different cultures, different languages, and that’s OK. We can mutually respect that and just because you’re going to have things and do things differently doesn’t mean I’m worse off.”
