From: Paul James

Sent: Tuesday, 16 July 2019 2:13 PM

Subject: Saturday's Meeting of Ethnic Community Leaders with Hon. Jenny Salesa

Tēnā koutou,

Many thanks to you all for your time on Saturday. It was a very useful and constructive meeting and I
appreciate the candour and cooperation you all brought to the table.

Hearing your concerns first hand was valuable for me, I’m committed to acting on those concerns.

We agreed that we could reconvene regularly as a group, to discuss progress and provide a forum
for you to raise issues with the Minister, Director of OEC, and myself. We discussed meeting every
three to four months, and that Multicultural New Zealand and the Office of Ethnic Communities will
work together to make this happen. I will look at setting up our next meeting in late October – early
November. This will give the Office time to bed in new recruitments in Auckland and Wellington,
support Ministers through the interfaith dialogues and progress the strengthening community-led
recovery work in Christchurch.

I was upfront with you that I recognise for too long the Office has not had stable leadership,
direction or a work programme. I heard your concerns that the performance and visibility of OEC
has diminished, and your concerns about the place the Director role has within DIA at third and not
second tier. I am actively considering how to address this. It was also suggested that we have
community input into selecting the new permanent Director for OEC. I support this and we will seek
community input into the recruiting process. There was broad agreement that the best candidates
would have experience in both the public sector and in ethnic community engagement.

I think it is important to reinforce that any decision about the Office of Ethnic Communities
becoming a separate ministry lies with the Government. The Minister was clear she is still advocating
for this, but it is more likely to be a medium term development.

OEC are focussed on completing their recruitment for additional front line staff, and are turning their
attention to refreshing their strategic direction and developing their national and regional work
programmes. I know that the Director intends to test these with you, and she knows you will
provide valuable insight into how the Office can work with your communities at a local level, and
help to ensure that they understand the issues your communities are facing.

You noted the concerns raised in the media about the workplace culture of OEC. I and the
Department of Internal Affairs are committed to building a positive and inclusive culture where we
treat everyone with dignity and respect. We take allegations of bullying and harassment seriously;
there are currently no specific concerns in OEC.

Your email raised a few other matters, the question of accountability for OEC performance and the
idea of an independent review (which was not raised in our meeting). I do not intend to act on these
specifically, instead I was clear on Saturday about the issues I see and the steps that I am taking.

As agreed, we will provide you with data on ethnicity and diversity within OEC, DIA and across
government. This is something we are all required to report on regularly, so we will be able to come
back to you on this relatively quickly.
We agreed on Saturday that there are a few more community leaders that need to be around the
table with us, and I will ask OEC to work collaboratively with Multicultural NZ to ensure they are
present when this Community Leaders Group meets again.

I look forward to us continuing to work together in a meaningful way.

Ngā mihi nui,

Paul

Paul James | Chief Executive

Department of Internal Affairs Te Tari Taiwhenua