Public Service job applicants are being told they need to demonstrate that they practice te Ao Maori and honour the Treaty in their home

On Breakfast (17 August), David Seymour cited unsourced anecdotes, including a Chinese applicant reportedly asked whether they spoke Te Reo at home, and a financial controller applicant supposedly questioned on their commitment to the Treaty of Waitangi.

These were used to justify ACT's push to strip ethnicity-based provisions from the Public Service Act and Crown Entities Act. Public service hiring requirements do not specify practising te Ao Māori or honouring Te Tiriti at home, and the PSA, Human Resources NZ, and the Public Service Commission have found no evidence this has occurred.