Immigration Minister Erica Stanford Photo: RNZ / Samuel Rillstone
Immigration Minister Erica Stanford said Thursday she regretted remarks made in Parliament earlier in the month when she likened unsolicited emails from Indians to "spam".
When answering parliamentary questions about the use of her private email on 6 May, Stanford said she had received a number of emails from people in India asking for immigration advice, which she never responded to.
She told RNZ she had been receiving emails from all over the world, and she would not have singled out any particular country if she could go back in time.
Stanford said she never intended to upset anyone when she made the comments.
"You know, it wasn't my intent to draw out one particular country," Stanford told RNZ on Thursday. "It was just a recent example that I happened to have in my head at the time.
"If I could go back and not say that particular country, of course I would."
When asked if she regretted making those remarks, Stanford said, "Looking back, of course".
"I would have said many people from many countries e-mail me asking for a job and a visa, and I do treat those as spam because clearly no minister in any country would be expected to respond to such an e-mail saying, 'Can I please have a job' and 'Can I please have a visa' from someone who's not stepped foot in the country before," she said.
On 6 May, Labour's Willow-Jean Prime asked Stanford to confirm every email related to her ministerial portfolios, which had ever been sent to or from her personal email account, had been captured for official record.
The question followed revelations a day earlier that Stanford had used her personal email account for work purposes, including sending herself pre-Budget announcements to print out.
"I have complied with the Official Information Act. I have also made sure that everything is available to be captured and have forwarded everything that I've needed to my parliamentary email address," Stanford said in response to the Labour MP's question.
"I will acknowledge, though, in a very similar case to Kelvin Davis, I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam, and so there are those ones. But, similarly, other ministers have had probably very similar issues."
Priyanca Radhakrishnan Photo: RNZ / Angus Dreaver
Priyanca Radhakrishnan, a former minister of ethnic communities, made her displeasure with the remarks about unsolicited emails from India clear in a social media post on 10 May.
"Earlier this week, in response to a question by @willowjeanprime the Immigration Minister felt the need to single out people from one country/ethnicity in a negative light," Radhakrishnan wrote.
"If you're from India, don't bother emailing her because it's automatically considered spam. So much for the National govt's all-of-government focus on strengthening the relationship between India and NZ and focus on people-to-people links."
Approached by RNZ, the minister initially defended her remarks, claiming Radhakrishnan's assertion was "incorrect".
"As I advised the House, I receive unsolicited emails from people overseas to my personal email address, often requesting personal immigration advice," Stanford said.
"In this instance, I recalled a recent email I'd received of this nature when answering in Question Time. I did not say it is automatically considered as spam, I said 'I almost regard those as being akin to spam'.
"While these people are attempting to contact me as the minister of immigration, I have no ministerial responsibility for providing non-citizens with immigration advice, nor do my officials at Immigration NZ have any responsibility.
"Therefore, these emails to my personal email address are not responded to. Emails sent to my official email addresses are managed appropriately by my office."
Stanford's remarks have sparked anger in India over the past two weeks, with many mainstream media in the subcontinent devoting column inches to the story.
Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said Stanford could have expressed herself better, but meant no offence when she made comments about receiving emails from people in India.
Veer Khar Photo: RNZ / Blessen Tom
Members of the Indian community in New Zealand have also criticised the minister for her remarks.
Veer Khar, president of the New Zealand Indian Central Association, expressed concern about Stanford's comments.
"We find this characterisation ill-mannered, dismissive and inappropriate," Khar wrote in a letter to the minister.
"While we appreciate that ministers receive a high volume of unsolicited emails, the specific reference to Indian-origin correspondence creates an unfortunate impression of bias against a community that has long contributed positively to New Zealand's economy, culture and society," he wrote.
"Your comments not only risk damaging trust in the immigration process but also send an unwelcome message to aspiring migrants and Indian-New Zealanders who seek fair and respectful engagement with the government."
Ravi Bajpai Photo: Supplied
Ravi Bajpai, editor of Indian community newspaper Indian Weekender, said Stanford's remarks contained two core assumptions.
"First ... is the way Stanford made the reference to Indians," Bajpai said. "[She] actually doesn't need [to] typecast a particular ethnicity.
"Second one is more subtle. When the immigration minister herself is engendering such stereotypes, it will rub off on officials making frontline immigration decisions.
"The Indian community in general feels the real question is about implicit bias.
"[But] a lot of immigration advisors I have talked to say it's not just implicit bias, it's also explicit bias against a lot of applications they deal [concerning Indians]."
Bajpai said the remarks had become a hot-button issue in the community because Indian media had picked it up.
"Her remarks have made headlines on all the major news website. It also coincides with Foreign Minister Winston Peters' visit to India," he said.
"When you are trying to crack a [free trade] deal with India, something you haven't been able to do for about 10-15 years, does it really help for your minister to say things like that?"
