Abstract
Last week, Cabinet released a circular to government organisations, giving effect to the coalition Government agreement commitment to “issue a Cabinet Office circular to all central government organisations that it is the Government’s expectation that public services should be prioritised on the basis of need, not race.” The term “race” originates from a long-discredited presumption of a biological hierarchy of human beings from white to black, and for decades the New Zealand health system has instead used ethnicity. This return to discredited terminology suggests that the foundations of white superiority are still alive and well in New Zealand today.