This report explores what governments can do to improve diversity outcomes in Aotearoa New Zealand. Professor Edwina Pio, AUT’s University Director of Diversity, and Mervin Singham, presently the Executive Director of the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Historical Abuse in Care, explore the New Zealand context and international examples for public sector leadership in diversity and inclusion.

While diversity and inclusion policy in New Zealand already supports a range of ‘soft practices', the authors argue that there is scope for more robust tactics to address continuing workplace inequalities and to enhance ‘cultural intelligence’ in our highly globalised era.