Frontline workers lauded as heroes in 2020 are now being abused, and complaints to the Human Rights Commission has increased dramatically.
It’s prompted the commission to ask Kiwis to “dial it down” - its new campaign aimed at de-escalating the hostility around Covid-19, amid passionate stances on aspects like vaccine mandates and lockdowns.
Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon said he was asking Kiwis to “dial down the rhetoric, the hate, the language that people use”.
“Our frontline workers don’t deserve this. They don’t provoke it, they’re there to serve you. We’re just saying take a breather.”
He said the Human Rights Commission was currently receiving about 700 complaints a week, many of which are about being on the receiving end of divisive, derogatory and damaging sentiments.
It’s a massive increase from 200 complaints a week in other times.
The Government has had to give the commission extra funding to deal with the additional volume, Foon said.
“It’s really ratcheted up in the past few weeks.”
Foon said people’s ethnicities, if they belonged to a minority group, tended to be a target for abuse.
He said it was important to remember words hurt, and what one person saw as a joke may not be to another person.
“I’m hopeful that some of these people are taped and sent a clip of their particular rhetoric,” Foon said in the hopes of encouraging people to do some self-reflection.
“I’m sure they will be shocked, their family will be shocked that they are actually like that.”
He urged people who witnessed hostility toward frontline workers not to engage with the person being abusive.
Instead, the victim should be supported and the workers’ bosses and co-workers should help de-escalate the situation, Foon said.
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