The Myth of Meritocracy in Aotearoa

By Dr Harpreet Singh | drhsinghnz.substack.com | FB: @DrHSinghNZ

Meritocracy is not justice. It is a story told by the powerful to turn privilege into virtue and inequality into destiny. - Dr Harpreet Singh

Meritocracy sounds noble. It promises that success comes from talent and effort, not privilege or politics. Today, National, New Zealand First and ACT are selling that promise as they strip away diversity and equity measures. They claim fairness means treating everyone the same. It does not. It never has.

Merit assumes a level playing field. Aotearoa has never had one. In 1860, Māori held most of the land in the North Island. By 1939, they held less than ten percent. Today it is closer to four percent. That loss was engineered through war, confiscation and law. It destroyed the economic base that creates opportunity. Poverty and exclusion followed. These conditions were imposed, not chosen, and they still shape outcomes.

Every right we now call basic was hard won against systems built to exclude. Women fought for the vote. Māori fought for representation. Te reo Māori was banned in schools for generations before being recognised as an official language. Treaty settlements return only a fraction of what was taken. These victories were not the result of merit. They were the result of struggle.

Meanwhile, European settlers were scaffolded by privilege. Confiscated land was sold cheaply or granted to them. Voting rights were tied to property ownership, locking Māori out. Education systems were designed to assimilate Māori while feeding settlers into professional careers. Roads, railways and ports were built for settler farms and towns. These were not neutral systems. They were engines of advantage.

Today, ethnic pay gaps remain wide. Wealth is concentrated in the same hands. Schools use an Equity Index because socio-economic barriers crush achievement. Merit is not an individual trait. It is the product of access to resources and networks, advantages some inherit, and others are denied.

When politicians claim to restore fairness by removing equity measures, they are not levelling the field. They are freezing history in place. They turn privilege into virtue and disadvantage into personal failure. Meritocracy is not fairness. It is a story told by the powerful to disguise inequality as justice.

If we want real fairness, we must stop pretending merit exists in isolation. It must be built by repairing past harms and equalising opportunity. Until then, merit will remain what it has always been in Aotearoa: a comforting myth.