The ACT Party is calling out what it describes as race-based discrimination in a major engineering firm’s internship recruitment process, warning the practice reflects a dangerous shift from merit-based hiring to identity politics.
ACT spokesperson for Tertiary Education and Skills, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, said a concerned parent alerted her to an application form for a summer engineering internship that stated Māori, Pasifika, Aboriginal, or Torres Strait Islander applicants would automatically be advanced to the interview stage.
Dr Parmar said the case reveals how identity-based policies are creeping into the private sector and urged businesses to rethink their hiring strategies.
“We must not let the rot that is so pervasive in our public institutions spread into the private sector,” she said.
She said ACT had already led efforts to remove race-based procurement rules in Government, including an eight percent quota for Māori-owned businesses and requirements for public agencies to prioritise employment opportunities for Māori.
“Businesses need to get the memo that they no longer need to engage in identity politics to secure Government contracts,” she said.
Screen shot from BECA website
Dr Parmar said when local councils impose race-based expectations in procurement processes, it puts pressure on companies to adopt hiring practices that prioritise ethnicity over ability.
“Race-based hiring, in any sector, is wrong. The ACT Party will keep fighting to stop this rot from spreading any further.”
She also pointed to universities as playing a role in normalising these practices, saying students and future HR professionals are being taught that ancestry should outweigh merit, contribution, and capability.
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“This divisive culture is being incubated in our universities and public institutions,” she said. “When academics and politicians constantly promote the idea that people should be treated differently based on race, it’s no wonder some start to believe it — and act on it.”
ACT is seeking further transparency on the internship scheme and has called for employers to uphold equal opportunity hiring standards without regard to ethnicity.
A Christchurch employment lawyer said “If this policy denies an equal opportunity to candidates based solely on their ethnicity, it may raise serious concerns under the Human Rights Act.
“Automatically fast-tracking applicants from specific ethnic groups, without giving equal consideration to others who are equally qualified, could be viewed as unjustified or disproportionate, and potentially discriminatory.”
Beca has been approached for comment.
