Race Relations Commissioner Meng Foon has rebuked a West Coast Regional Council chairman who publicly referred to Covid-19 as “this Chinese virus”.
Allan Birchfield was on Friday quoted in the Greymouth Star saying”I’m taking a bit of a different attitude to this Chinese virus. It’s going to be with us for a long time…We can’t afford to keep doing this.”
Birchfield stood by his comments when contacted on Saturday and said anyone who believes it to be racist needs to stop “being so bloody precious”. “It’s not racist at all, we all know where it started.”
The Star published an article on Friday reporting on a meeting held between the West Coast’s three mayors, involving the regional council, two iwi representatives, and Civil Defence on Wednesday.
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