Legitimacy and the Use of Ethnic Categories in Public Service Long- Term Insights Briefings

Abstract

This article considers the way government agencies use the concept of ethnicity in their long-term insights briefings. Ethnicity receives a disproportionate focus compared with other socio-demographic categories. Yet the concept is treated as self-evident, and its manifold
limitations are unexplored. Salient outcome variations are reduced to average ethnic differences, and variation is further reduced, in an
essentialised manner, to comparisons between Māori, Pacific and the largely invisible others in the European and Asian categories. Human commonality and complex webs of micro-connections between people are not explored. Questions arise regarding whether the briefings’ treatment of ethnicity relative to other socio-demographic dimensions fulfils statutory obligations to be impartial and politically neutral. The article argues that the briefings’ treatment of ethnicity may undermine their public legitimacy. Significant recommendations for positive change are made.