[INTERVIEW] 'Diversity makes New Zealand stronger'

New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner speaks during an interview with The Korea Times at the embassy in central Seoul, June 10. Courtesy of Lee Soo-jin

By Kwon Mee-yoo

June is LGBT Pride Month, raising awareness on sexual minorities, and Korea's largest celebration Seoul Queer Culture Festival (SQCF) started with online events Sunday. Since 2014, a number of foreign embassies in Seoul have taken part in the festival to support LGBT rights, and New Zealand has been a staple at the festival. New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner, the first openly gay ambassador to Korea whose same-sex spouse is recognized by the Korean government, gave a speech at SQCF in 2019, explaining the development of LGBT rights in New Zealand.

"I was really happy to be asked to contribute because this is an issue which is not only an important part of New Zealand's values as a modern society ― diversity is key to our identity and our values ― but also because this has been such an important and a difficult and challenging part of my life. So for us to be able to have the opportunity to talk about our experience at pride events in Seoul and to be able to connect with Korean people and share our story and for people to find that helpful have been tremendously satisfying," the Kiwi ambassador said during an interview with The Korea Times at the New Zealand Embassy in Seoul, June 10.

Diversity has been a key value for New Zealand and the embassy has been supporting pride events since before Turner came to Korea. In 2020 and 2021, the festival has been switched to virtual space due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the New Zealand Embassy shared video interviews of Kiwi LGBT people such as Georgina Beyer, the world's first transgender member of Parliament, by Amnesty Korea.

"New Zealand has always been a diverse country, but we have not always appreciated the importance of that diversity. New Zealand is founded on a treaty partnership between two very different people ― the Maori, indigenous people of New Zealand, and the British settlers. So it's been diverse from the outset," Turner said. "In addition to the partnership between Maori and non-Maori, New Zealand in the recent decades has become a far more diverse society. My city, Auckland, has 40 percent of the population born overseas, which makes it one of the most diverse cities in the world."

The ambassador believes that championing diversity is not only the right thing to do as human beings, but also for the national interest to create a stronger, better country.

"Modern New Zealand is very diverse and it's a great strength. Diversity creates stronger organizations, stronger countries, stronger society. If people are able to be themselves and bring their full personality to whatever they do in their life, then they will be happier. And society will be richer and more successful as a result."

New Zealand Ambassador to Korea Philip Turner, right, delivers a speech during the 2019 Seoul Queer Culture Festival with his spouse Hiroshi Ikeda. Captured from YouTube

Born in 1960, Turner is a living witness of the advancement of LGBT rights in New Zealand. When he was young, sexual acts between consenting men were still illegal in his country, but the long struggle for LGBT rights has not only given sexual freedom to gay men but has positively affected human rights across the board for New Zealanders from all walks of life.

"Personally, it has been a huge journey for me. When I was growing up as a young gay guy in New Zealand, it was very difficult. Male homosexuality was illegal until 1986. So for me, that was quite a scary, highly repressed place to be a gay person. Since then, things have changed substantially. Not perfect, but looking back, I'm extremely grateful for those opportunities I've had in New Zealand. Now to be representing New Zealand and to be able to be open about my sexuality, my partner and my family is a tremendous opportunity and improvement, frankly, from where it was," he said.

"The key date is 1990, when we passed the Bill of Rights Act, which set out some basic principles around discrimination. And then in 1993, we passed a full Human Rights Act, similar to the bill, and that act was very important in prohibiting discrimination on a number of grounds, including sexuality."

The legislation provided the platform for behavioral change, which Turner sees as more important than the laws themselves.

"I think law is really important, but it's only one part of society. It's more important to affect behavioral change, to get people to really accept diversity in their daily life. It was very important to normalize, or create norms of, tolerance, equality and diversity in the society, which enabled people to accept that these things are natural and good."

Eleven years after the Human Rights Act 1993 was introduced, New Zealand passed the Civil Union Act, legislating the institution of civil union regardless of gender.

"It was very controversial and only narrowly passed in the Parliament. Then in 2013, we passed a bill fully legalizing same-sex marriage. That passed very easily with much less opposition. I think that is because the process of social change and social acceptance has been going on for some time and people got to the point from where it seemed like a scary idea to where it seems okay ― the sky did not fall and life goes on. The social acceptance is a critical part of creating the kind of society we have today, as well as the legal and legislative framework."

In Korea, anti-discrimination bills have been pending at the National Assembly for about 15 years due to opposition from conservative politicians and religious groups.

"Every country takes a different path and no one's perfect. All I can do is talk about New Zealand's experience and what worked for us. For us, achieving a comprehensive anti-discrimination law was, especially in retrospect, a very substantial step forward, probably more so than we realized at the time. Not just in terms of the legal breakthrough, but in terms of shaping societal attitudes and creating a base for a more tolerant, diverse community," the ambassador said.

"Acceptance of the necessity for comprehensive anti-discrimination laws is a very important part of establishing justice and human rights in the community generally. Without that kind of legislation, without that protection for all sorts of minorities, it's hard to see how you can really move forward as an economy."

Kiwi people's pursuit of diversity and inclusion is shown in how New Zealand elected its most diverse Parliament ever last year.

"Our Parliament at the moment is more diverse than it's ever been. We're proud of that, but also mindful that it's been a long time coming. Today 48 percent of the Parliament is women, 11 percent LGBT and 21 percent Maori. We have members of Parliament who were born not just in Korea, but also in Asia, Latin America and Africa. We're very pleased that the Parliament now looks like New Zealand, probably more so than ever before," Turner said.

"Historically, our parliament was way too dominated by white men. And that creates bias. It means that those people typically look after the interests of people like them. So what diversity is doing is trying to rebalance and create a more equal Parliament and create a more equal society with everyone's interests and rights equally respected.

"Having those diverse groups in Parliament helps ensure that you have a strong debate. You don't necessarily get everything that you want, but at least you can raise issues and have a more informed debate. The members of those minorities have a much better chance of having their voices heard and their interests respected. It's simple. Equality, diversity, justice."

Auckland city skyline / gettyimagesbank

Exemplary COVID-19 response

New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern's administration made a rapid and strict response to COVID-19 that led the Pacific island country to eliminate COVID-19 locally by closing its borders and imposing strict lockdowns.

"The prime minister made that decision on the basis of medical advice and she did so very quickly. Her view was that we needed to act quickly to stop the pandemic at the beginning. We didn't want to be in a situation where we had to manage it, but we wanted to stop it," Turner explained.

"People worried that extreme measures like that can be very painful, especially for business and employment, but the prime minister has been very clear about this ― the best thing you can do for the economy is stopping the virus. We went through a quick recession and then a quick recovery. New Zealand's economic performance has been very strong, compared with other countries."

"From nearly all of this year, we have had virtually zero locally transmitted cases. So in New Zealand people's life is normal. People do not wear masks and we have big concerts and sports matches. And our vaccination is starting to ramp up quickly, though we are on a slower path because we understand that the priority of vaccines is in other parts of the world, not New Zealand. Now our challenge will be how we reintegrate into the world."

New Zealand hopes to continue connecting with Korea despite the pandemic. Even during the pandemic, the New Zealand Embassy in Korea remained fully operational, maintaining services for Kiwi expats here and communications between the two governments, sometimes virtually.

"I think there's a lot of potential for New Zealand and Korea to get closer and to do more together. We have an excellent relationship. When New Zealand looks around our region, there are very few countries that we share values with as much as Korea ― not just open markets and a thriving, open economy, but also democracy, the rule of law, free press, respect for human rights and the way both New Zealand and Korea have demonstrated good governance through the COVID-19 pandemic, delivering what citizens want and keeping safe," Turner said.

"In that sense of shared values as well as a shared commitment to international rules in this challenging time of big changes in the relative balance of power in the world, both Korea and New Zealand have very strong interest in maintaining the international rules-based order. As smaller countries, we can't survive in a world with the law of the jungle. We have to have standards, rules and principles and Korea and New Zealand strongly agree on that point. There's lots we can do together as two slightly smaller countries try to make the world a stronger, safer and more prosperous place."