New Zealand minister under fire for Indian emails 'akin to spam' remark

New Zealand Immigration Minister Erica Stanford has courted controversy by stating that she never replies to any emails from India as she considers them “akin to spam.”

The minister made the remarks during a Parliamentary session on May 6 when she was defending her use of a personal email account for official work.

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The minister said that she gets a lot of “unsolicited emails” and as an example mentioned emails from Indians seeking immigration advice. She said that she “never responds” to such emails as she considers them as “being akin to spam.”

Unacceptable, says MP

The minister drew severe criticism over her remarks from Indian-origin Labour MP Priyanca Radhakrishnan who described them as “unacceptable.”

Speaking to the Indian Weekender, the MP lambasted the minister for singling out people from “one ethnicity” and writing them “all off” by labelling them as not worthy of a response and “akin to spam.” She further alleged that such comments only serve to “reinforce negative stereotypes” against an entire community of people.

‘Don’t single out Indians’

She described the minister’s comment as “careless at best and prejudiced at worst,” pointing out that ministers receive such unsolicited emails from all quarters and there was no point in singling out only emails from Indians, “particularly given New Zealand's important relationship with India.”

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In a hard-hitting post on Facebook, Radhakrishnan told Indians “If you’re from India, don’t bother emailing her because it’s automatically considered spam.”

“So much for the National govt’s all-of-government focus on strengthening the relationship between India & NZ and focus on people-to-people links,” she added.

Minister defends self

Later, Stanford tried to defend her comments arguing that she had been misinterpreted. She claimed that she never said that she considers the emails from Indians “as spam”, adding, “I only said that I consider them almost akin to spam.”

She further stated that through the remark she was only referring to the huge volume and nature of unsolicited emails she receives on her personal email and was not singling out Indians. “In this instance, I recalled a recent email I’d received of this nature when answering,” she said as quoted by media reports.

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Stanford has been New Zealand’s Immigration Minister since November 27, 2023, after the National-led coalition government under Prime Minister Christopher Luxon was formed.

Her comments come within months after Luxon visited India in March and held a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi. India and New Zealand are currently in the process of finalising a free trade agreement by the end of 2025.