The University of Auckland in New Zealand has responded to claims of segregation after a sign for an area for Māori and Pasifika students sparked fiery debate across political parties.
The university says it is proud of the community it has created for its students.
Here's how the back-and-forth unfolded.
What's going on here?
This all started when the ACT Party, currently part of New Zealand's conservative governing coalition, accused the University of Auckland of segregation.
The party issued a statement and made a social media post on Tuesday with a photo of a sign for an area for Māori and Pasifika students at what it says appears to be the University of Auckland Business School.
Even the Prime Minister Chris Luxon has stepped in. He said he hasn't seen the detail, but at first glance it looks totally inappropriate. "There is no place for discrimination or segregation in New Zealand. Universities should be places of inclusion, not exclusion."
Where did this start?
ACT's tertiary education spokesperson, Dr Parmjeet Parmar, was the first to comment. She said the party has seen similar accounts from other universities. "If true, this is nothing short of segregation". She linked out to a Reddit post which has been subsequently deleted.
There were quite a few caveats in her statement, it should be noted. It read: "Photos posted online last night show official-looking signs at the entrance to what appears to be an Auckland University study room saying 'This is a Designated Area for Māori and Pasifika Students. Thank You'."
What does the University of Auckland say?
On Thursday a spokesperson for the university said it has close to 45,000 students with diverse interests and needs.
"The University responds to these social, health and wellbeing, exercise, study, and religious interests and needs with dedicated facilities, spaces and support," the spokesperson said.
"We have designated rooms across the University for multiple teaching, research, study and extra-curricular purposes, some of which are for Māori and Pacific students.
"We are proud of the community we have created for students and the support we provide for their success. The University community is open and welcomes students, their friends and whānau."
Why is the ACT Party involved?
The party's position is that "blocking people from spaces based on their ethnicity is unequivocally wrong", Parmar said.
Asked if he had a problem with tauira Māori [Māori students] having a common room when he was a student at the university, ACT leader David Seymour said at the time he found it "somewhat distasteful", and "the fact that something's been done for a long time is not actually a justification for it".
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What do the other parties say?
Labour's tertiary education spokesperson, Dr Deborah Russell, said there is a long standing need to ensure more Māori and Pasifika students enrol in university education and complete their qualification. "If providing spaces where Māori and Pasifika students can meet helps with enabling them to complete their degrees, then it's worth doing so."
Green Party Māori development spokesperson, Hūhana Lyndon, said: "We support designated safe spaces for tauira [students] to gather to freely express themselves and their cultural practices in an academic setting. This is integral to supporting student well-being and academic achievement."
New Zealand First leader, and Deputy Prime Minister, Winston Peters said that if true, the setting aside of space for a group "is the seed of segregation". Some universities have become "a haven of woke cultural brainwashing" and "try to justify their actions by attributing it to some sort of 'moral cultural crusade' and wilfully ignore the direct comparisons to the KKK and the apartheid way of thinking where we are divided by race".
A Te Pāti Māori spokesperson called ACT's assertion "damaging and inflammatory", and an attempt to misrepresent tangata whenua and paint a picture of preferential treatment for Māori. Safe spaces for minority groups in university aren't new, the spokesperson said. "Creating safe spaces to empower minority communities to thrive and achieve whilst creating a sense of interconnectedness should be celebrated."
