Three great appointments by Goldsmith

Paul Goldsmith released:

Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith is appointing Dr Stephen Rainbow as the new Chief Human Rights Commissioner as part of three major leadership changes. 

“Dr Rainbow’s career has encompassed a range of roles including managing government relations for the largest infrastructure project in New Zealand, lecturing at Victoria University, as Director of Urban Strategy at Wellington City Council, and National Manager of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust,” Mr Goldsmith says.

“He served as a Wellington City Councillor from 1989 to 1998, and has been active in promoting LBGT rights and is a former board member of the Burnett Foundation Aotearoa.

This is a great appointment. Stephen actually believes that free speech is an important human right, and he will focus the Commission more on human rights and less on Corbynista politics. Stephen started his politics with the Labour, then the Greens, then Progressive Greens and finally National.

“I am also appointing Dr Gail Pacheco as the next Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner.

“Dr Pacheco is a Professor of Economics and Director of the NZ Policy Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology. 

I don’t know who personally, but she is a well respected economics professional who has specialised in areas such as family incomes and gender pay. This strongly suggests she will take an empirical research based approach to her role which is absolutely what she wants. She has won economics prizes and served as President of the NZ Association of Economists.

“Finally, Dr Melissa Derby will become the new Race Relations Commissioner.

“Dr Derby is a senior lecturer at Waikato University, teaching early literacy and human development. Her primary area of research is early literacy, and in particular, exploring the role of whānau in fostering foundational preliteracy skills. 

“Her work has been recognised through a range of awards, including a Fulbright-Ngā Pae o te Māramatanga Graduate Award.

Melissa is on the board of the Free Speech Union, and is a champion of free speech as a core human right. Despite being the largest civil liberties/human rights groups in NZ, the former Commissioners wouldn’t even meet with the FSU and now one of their board members is a Commissioner. It shows what a difference a change of government can make.

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