There are reservations over the need for an inquiry into 'racist' monuments, statues and names from New Zealand's colonial era.

The Maori Party's calling for an inquiry into the monuments, statues and names from New Zealand's colonial era.

Historian Paul Moon told Mike Hosking it wouldn't correct anything.

"If you think removing a statue - somehow amputating a visual representation of the past is going to change anything - you're very much mistaken."

Professor Paul Moonsays in the US,  people congregate around confederate statues and celebrate confederate leaders, but we don't do that sort of thing here

"Given that we see these statues for what they are, Victorian era memorials, we tend not to get agitated by them because there's no need to."

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