Race-based policies remain a powerful tool for raising the standing of disadvantaged groups, the Human Rights Commission said today.
Such policies have been tagged "affirmative action" by their supporters, but "race-based" by opponents, who say they discriminate against the majority.
Former National leader Don Brash almost took hisparty to victory at the last election after riding a groundswell of support generated by opposition to race-based policies.
He said such policies discriminated against "mainstream New Zealanders" and amounted to "special privilege".
In response the Government reviewed its programmes and altered a number of schemes that were deemed to be race rather than needs based.
But Chief Human Rights Commissioner Rosslyn Noonan today said such policies remained a valid means of ensuring equality.
"Special measures remain an important policy tool. Properly used, such programmes can make a major contribution to reducing the effects of discrimination," she said.
The commission has released a leaflet - Guidelines on Measures to Ensure Equality - which sets out how organisations and policy makers should go about putting in place special measures to assist disadvantaged ethnic groups.
Ms Noonan said the Human Rights Act specifically upheld positive discrimination when it applied to "those persons or groups that need, or may reasonably be supposed to need assistance or advancement in order to achieve an equal place with other members of the community".
She said governments also needed to target inequality through universal measures.
Ms Noonan was speaking at the release of a new book titled Special Measures to Reduce Ethnic Disadvantage in New Zealand, written by Victoria University senior research fellow Paul Callister.
Ms Noonan said the book showed special measures remained an important policy tool.
Earlier this month the commission released a report showing workplace complaints made up 20 per cent of race-related complaints in 2006, up from 16 per cent in 2005.
Almost a third of complaints to the commission last year were workplace-related.
The report showed the number of complaints about racial harassment also continued to grow.
In 2006, 24 per cent of race-related complaints were about harassment, compared to 19 per cent in 2005 and 15 per cent in 2004.
