Жаңа Зеландиядағы «Аралықты жабу» саясаты және оның нәтижелері

the similar policy in Australia

Closing the Gaps was a policy of the Fifth Labour Government of New Zealand for assisting socio economically disadvantaged Māori and Pasifika ethnic groups in New Zealand through specially targeted social programmes.

The aim of Closing the Gaps was to reduce the most visible disparities in socio economic status and opportunity between Māori and Pacific Islander groups and other groups. The policy had a social development and social inclusion approach to social policy. Closing the Gaps aimed to balance individual and collective rights and responsibilities by integrating Māori and Pacific Islanders more extensively into the paid labour market.

The socio economic gaps between Māori and non Māori stem from a history of colonialism. Land alienation and the Māori labour migration resulted in structural inequalities in socio economic status between Māori and non Māori, a central concern of Closing the Gaps. These inequalities were exacerbated by the neoliberal policy reforms pursued by the Fourth Labour and Fourth National governments. Increasing inequality throughout the 1980s and 90s disproportionately affected Māori and Pacific Islanders, who were over represented at the bottom of New Zealand's socio economic landscape. In June 2000, Winston Peters, leader of the New Zealand First party, described the program as "social apartheid". critics argued the policy was ultimately damaging for Māori because it perpetuated negative stereotypes that normalised and reinforced Pākehā dominance. Māori Labour Party politicians promoted the policy as providing greater autonomy and self determination for Māori under the partnership principle of the Treaty of Waitangi. Contrastingly, it was argued that by encouraging assimilation to Western values, Closing the Gaps continued to marginalise Māori culture by portraying Māoridom, and consequently Māori socio economic disadvantage, as deviant. Additionally, a focus on individual responsibility for reducing socio economic gaps was criticised for failing to recognise the government's historical role as the excluding agent causing inequalities between Māori and non Māori.

Six months after the Labour led Government was formed in late 1999, the term "Closing the Gaps" was no longer used in official documents. Opposition politicians observed that the Government still had a Closing the Gaps policy objective, but no longer referred to the policy by that name. Closing the Gaps was re branded by the Government as "reducing inequalities", in an attempt to make the policy more popular with the public. Over the term of the 1999–2008 Labour Government, social statistics for Maori and Pacific Islanders did generally improve; however, the statistics for Pakeha New Zealanders showed a greater improvement, resulting in the 'gaps' actually increasing. Closing the Gaps failed to reduce socio economic inequalities between Māori and non Māori and did not resolve structural inequalities that socio economically excluded Māori from mainstream society. After losing the 2002 election in a landslide, the opposition National Party campaigned, unsuccessfully, on a commitment to abolish Closing the Gaps and related affirmative action. In 2004 National leader Don Brash suggested all policies helping Māori become less disadvantaged should be abandoned, calling for abolition of the Māori electorates and Māori claims to customary title under the Treaty of Waitangi. Brash's tactic was to claim erroneously that Māori were being afforded privileges that disadvantaged Pākehā. Closing the Gaps popularised a rhetoric of privilege in response to Treaty rights.