6.2.4 Pacific Employment Action Plan On 30 May 2022, the New Zealand Government launched the Pacific Employment Action Plan.329 It was produced based on extensive community engagement (with approximately 2,500 Pacific people) and supports the Ministry for Pacific Peoples’ Pacific Aotearoa Lalanga Fou report.330 The goals of the Pacific Aotearoa Lalanga Fou are: • Thriving Pacific Languages, Cultures and Identities • Prosperous Pacific Communities • Resilient Healthy Pacific Communities • Confident, Thriving and Resilient Pacific Young People. By supporting employment outcomes for Pacific peoples, the action plan particularly contributes to the goal of creating Prosperous Pacific Communities. The diversity of Pacific communities and the intersectionalities of Pacific identities are well recognised in the action plan, with separate focuses and statistics provided for Pacific women, Pacific youth, Pacific disabled people, and Pacific MVPFAFF+/ LGBTQIA+. The action plan focuses on three key objectives: 1. Diversify the Pacific workforce. 2. Addressing systemic barriers. 3. Building on Pacific entrepreneurship. Within each objective, the action plan lists the government policies and strategy that are currently under way that will contribute towards that objective. Objective 1 acknowledges as a starting point that Pacific peoples in the labour market are concentrated in occupations with lower pay. It then focuses on the need to support Pacific communities to participate in a wider range of areas such as STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts and mathematics). There are two broad components to this: supporting Pacific people to make informed decisions about their careers at different stages of life and exploring new modes for learning and working for new and existing occupations relevant to Pacific students, workers and volunteers. 46 Objective 2 acknowledges that, for employment services to be well-tailored to individuals and their needs, they need to be culturally informed. For this, a range of systems shifts are required: (c) Ensuring Pacific families and communities have the baseline tools, skills, and wellbeing to engage as they aspire to in the labour market and education systems. (d) Supporting government and businesses at all levels and in all places to better respond to the experiences and needs of diverse Pacific workers, learners, and communities. (e) Being accountable and modelling best-practice in the public service for fair employment outcomes across pay, workplace practices, and career progression and training opportunities to address ethnic-gender pay gaps and occupational segregation.331 Behavioural insights can help with reducing inequitable outcomes – for example, disclosing salary ranges encourages people, especially women, to negotiate. Most notably, objective 2 specifically names the ethnic pay gap and gender-ethnic pay gap as areas of focus and acknowledges the work of the Human Rights Commission in the Pacific Pay Gap Inquiry. Overall, it acknowledges the importance of addressing structural discrimination, which is a promising development that the Inquiry will continue to track. Objective 3 acknowledges that there is little government-funded support for Pacific businesses and entrepreneurs beyond the Pacific Business Trust. It highlights the importance of social procurement, referring to the practice of large organisations, particularly businesses, buying goods and services where doing so supports broader cultural, environmental and social outcomes. This includes buying from businesses owned by Māori, Pacific peoples, disabled people and other minorities that traditionally face a range of barriers to engaging with large buyers. This objective has the least actions in the action plan, but all are generally aimed at supporting government funding and investment for Pacific enterprises. 329 Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Pacific Employment Action Plan. 330 Ministry for Pacific Peoples. Pacific Aotearoa Lalanga Fou. Wellington: Ministry for Pacific Peoples, 2018. https://www.mpp. govt.nz/assets/Reports/Pacific-Aotearoa-Lalanga-Fou-Report.pdf 331 Ministry for Pacific Peoples, Pacific Employment Action Plan, 23.