National's "PC eradicator" Wayne Mapp says he will be rethinking his views on what political correctness is following concerned feedback from the community that the National Party is against minorities. Dr Mapp told GayNZ.com he now recognises that elements of a “PC” speech he gave back in June, which prompted National leader Don Brash to assign him the portfolio of “political correctness eradicator”, were flawed because they gave that impression. The speech, available until a few days ago on his website, now appears to have been removed. “It's hard to defend political correctness [eradication] in that way,” he told GayNZ.com. “I am deliberately going to go away and think about these things more completely. Like all ideas, they've got to be tested. I think that's been one area of weakness.” In the week since his appointment to the “eradicator” position, Mapp says he's become aware that his use of the terms “majority” and “minority” need further thought. “I'm going to be doing a more substantial paper on it [political correctness], and I'm going to have to look more carefully and thoroughly at this initial sense of majority/minority, because I think it does cause...it's problematic, frankly,” he says. Dr Mapp told the NZ Herald earlier this week that he was shocked by comments from author Alan Duff about minorities, who said he was sick of hearing about gays and disabled people. Mapp said Duff went “way too far”, and his comments were concerning.
Credit: GayNZ.com News Staff
First published: Friday, 4th November 2005 - 12:00pm