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Margaret Mutu - Source: ONE News -
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The Human Rights Commission has dismissed a complaint by Ngapuhi activist David Rankin against a Maori academic who said immigrants should be screened for racist attitudes.
Professor Mutu, head of the University of Auckland's Maori department, sparked 30 complaints to the commission after saying immigration by whites should be restricted because they pose a threat to race relations due to their "white supremacist" attitudes.
Ngapuhi leader David Rankin called for Mutu to be sacked from her role at the university and took his complaint to the Race Relations Commissioner.
In a short letter to Joris De Bres, Rankin outlined his argument against Mutu.
"Ms Mutu, in her public statements about immigration - particularly her claim that the immigration of 'white' people to New Zealand should be reduced because they are allegedly racist, has been demonstrating discrimination on the grounds of race, colour, and ethnic and national origins."
The commissioner emailed Rankin and said that although he deplored Mutu's suggestion that New Zealand should discriminate against white-skinned people from certain countries, the Bill of Rights Act allowed people to speak their mind, the NZ Herald reported.
He also quoted the Education Act, saying it protected the freedom of academic staff and students to put forward new ideas.
Mutu is standing by her opinion and told TV ONE's Close Up last month that racism exists very strongly in New Zealand's parliamentary system. She said South Africans coming to this country are able to see "a regime that is not hugely different form the old one that they used to have, and that makes them feel comfortable".
Maori should have the right to decide who comes in, and they did so when they signed the Treaty of Waitangi in 1840, she said.
But she denied her views are racist and that Maori are arguing for the superiority of their own race and wanting advantage over other races.
Mutu made her call for migrants to be screened for racism in response to a Department of Labour report which found Maori are more likely to express anti-immigration sentiment than Pakeha or any other ethnic group.
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