Melbourne:
New Zealand officials have allowed a woman to use license plate "ARYAN 1" as it is not a claim of white supremacy but a gesture of "love" for her former partner.
The row started when a Kiwi complained to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) that term "Aryan" used by Lisa Marie Thompson on her car number plate is offensive as German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi army used the term to describe themselves as "master race", The Dominion Post newspaper reported today.
But the Wellington woman successfully argued for keeping the number plate ARYAN 1.
"This is really offensive, for pretty obvious reasons (association of Aryan with white supremacy)," the complainant wrote. "How can somebody even have a plate like this approved? I am baffled."
For Thompson, it is nothing more than a personalized license plate displaying the initial and surname of her former boyfriend Andrew Ryan.
And so agreeing with the woman, NZTA after investigation found that banning the plate would impinge on Thompson's right to free speech.
"NZTA finds racism and racist speech as abhorrent as all right-thinking New Zealanders (do), which is why this was not an easy decision to make. However, we consider that the original decision not to require the surrender of the plate was correct," the agency was quoted as saying the newspaper.
Thompson is the registered owner of a 1993 Ford Falcon. She paid about NZD 700 four years ago for the ARYAN1 personalised plate. She and Ryan are no longer together.
When asked why she chose a message that could be read as a tribute to the Nazi regime, which murdered millions in the Holocaust, Thompson said "It doesn't really bother me."
However, Thompson said she would look into the meaning of Aryan in dictionary.
"I'll look it up in the dictionary and see what it says, but I've had it for years and I don't see the problem with it. It would be no different to having 'Maori Pride'."
The row started when a Kiwi complained to the New Zealand Transport Agency (NZTA) that term "Aryan" used by Lisa Marie Thompson on her car number plate is offensive as German dictator Adolf Hitler's Nazi army used the term to describe themselves as "master race", The Dominion Post newspaper reported today.
But the Wellington woman successfully argued for keeping the number plate ARYAN 1.
"This is really offensive, for pretty obvious reasons (association of Aryan with white supremacy)," the complainant wrote. "How can somebody even have a plate like this approved? I am baffled."
For Thompson, it is nothing more than a personalized license plate displaying the initial and surname of her former boyfriend Andrew Ryan.
And so agreeing with the woman, NZTA after investigation found that banning the plate would impinge on Thompson's right to free speech.
"NZTA finds racism and racist speech as abhorrent as all right-thinking New Zealanders (do), which is why this was not an easy decision to make. However, we consider that the original decision not to require the surrender of the plate was correct," the agency was quoted as saying the newspaper.
Thompson is the registered owner of a 1993 Ford Falcon. She paid about NZD 700 four years ago for the ARYAN1 personalised plate. She and Ryan are no longer together.
When asked why she chose a message that could be read as a tribute to the Nazi regime, which murdered millions in the Holocaust, Thompson said "It doesn't really bother me."
However, Thompson said she would look into the meaning of Aryan in dictionary.
"I'll look it up in the dictionary and see what it says, but I've had it for years and I don't see the problem with it. It would be no different to having 'Maori Pride'."
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