Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says Dr Stephen Rainbow will be the new chief Human Rights Commissioner. Photo / Human Rights Commission
By RNZ
The Government has named new leadership for the Human Rights Commission.
Justice Minister Paul Goldsmith says Dr Stephen Rainbow will be the new chief Human Rights Commissioner, Dr Gail Pacheco the Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner and Dr Melissa Derby the Human Rights Commissioner.
Goldsmith said Rainbow’s career “has encompassed a range of roles including managing government relations for the largest infrastructure project in New Zealand, lecturing at Victoria University, as director of urban strategy at Wellington City Council, and national manager of the New Zealand Historic Places Trust”.
Rainbow was also a Wellington City councillor from 1989 to 1998 and has been active in promoting LGBTQ rights.
In 2021, Stuff and 1 News both reported that Auckland Transport was investigating a social media post by Rainbow to the Rainbow Auckland Networking Group.
The post was promoting a petition to ban gay conversion therapy, and Rainbow’s reply reportedly said, “be careful ... there’s some elements of the trans agenda being sneakily promoted through this campaign”. Rainbow’s reported comment prompted complaints about transphobia by co-workers at Auckland Transport, 1 News said at the time.
Pacheco is a professor of economics and director of the NZ Policy Research Institute at Auckland University of Technology (AUT).
“She has extensive experience leading large-scale, multi-institutional funded projects, including work for the Ministry of Business, Innovation and Employment, Ministry for Women, Ministry of Education and the Human Rights Commission,” Goldsmith said.
New Human Rights Commissioner Derby is a senior lecturer at Waikato University, teaching early literacy and human development.
Her primary area of research is early literacy and in particular exploring the role of whānau in fostering foundational preliteracy skills.
Goldsmith had earlier expressed a desire to make changes in the commission, which the Act party campaigned to abolish before the last election.
He thanked Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Dr Saunoamaali’i Karanina Sumeo, who has taken on the roles of acting chief commissioner and acting race relations commissioner over much of the past year.
- RNZ