I’m always a bit confused when I get asked what to put on these New Zealand demographic questions. Sometimes they also add “European” and “African, Latin American, or Middle Eastern” which seems like a category so broad they might as well just admit it’s ‘other’.
aren't we all other?
No, there are some people who’s identity cleanly fits within the provided categories. They are after all by far the most common ways people identify ethnically in Aotearoa New Zealand.
The "other" category means "powerless and not part of a strongly-bounded political identity bloc for vote banking / branch stacking purposes".
Australia has different items on its list, but same concept. We actually have quite a few Latin Americans these days, but our politicians haven't found it profitable to try to weld them into a bloc, don't know why.
There is actually good representation of some of the ‘other’ groups in Parliament. There are representatives from Africa, Latin America, and the US. https://www.parliament.nz/en/pb/library-research-papers/research-papers/the-2020-general-election-and-referendums-results-analysis-and-demographics-of-the-53rd-parliament/
