The Tertiary Education Minister says AUT has good rationale behind its policy to give Māori and Pasifika staff extra points in choosing staff to attend overseas conferences.  

AUT says there's a critical shortage of those academic staff in the sector, and the policy helps address that.  

The Government's directed the public service to allocate services on need, not race.  

Minister Penny Simmonds told Mike Hosking the university has a high proportion of Māori and Pasifika students, and their proportionality of staff isn't as high.  

She says they're also trying to build up the research capability of Māori and Pasifika staff. 

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