Committee for Unity and Racial Equality's (CURE) race reporting regulations will not highlight any prejudice that might exist against Portuguese Bermudians.

The CURE Regulations passed on Wednesday in the Senate are specifically aimed at correcting inequalities in the workplace between blacks and whites in Bermuda.

And forms that businesses will have to submit to CURE do not allow for a breakdown of Portuguese employees.

While Bermudians of Portuguese descent are a cultural group, not a race, advocates say they have been discriminated against since first coming to the Island in the mid-19th Century. Asked why the Portuguese community was left out of the equation, Mr. Lister said: "To be honest, we are concerned about everybody, but the law is designed one way.

"We want to ensure Bermuda is an open door for everybody and as we embrace people and people get status and gain Bermudian acceptance then they have to get fair play.'' But Mr. Lister put the onus on the Portuguese to get the same treatment Government is affording to blacks.

"If the Portuguese community were to come to me a year from now and say that they are not happy, that they have been monitoring the CURE situation and see that blacks are starting to move ahead because of CURE and feel that they have some injustices, I'll listen,'' he said.

"And then we'll figure out what we can do about those injustices -- if they can make valid cases.

"Portuguese today compared to where they started from in 1849 have suffered the other way from blacks,'' he said. "Most blacks will tell you Portuguese have done so darn well, `don't you dare take up their cause'.

"And when you think of it, there are Portuguese lawyers, Portuguese doctors and almost all the grocery stores are owned by Portuguese.'' Mr. Lister said such perceptions would not stop him from pursuing the matter if the Portuguese community expressed concerns over prejudice.

"It may be that ten percent of the Portuguese community have 90 percent of the Portuguese wealth and 90 percent of them are still out in the fields working at Dunkley's Dairy, and working for the MarketPlace moving boxes around making minimum wage,'' he said.

"So it would be up to the Portuguese community to come along a year from now and say `we're not all lawyers and doctors and we don't think we're being given our fair share'. They might have a good tale to tell.'' Mr. Lister acknowledged that "there is a lot more than meets the eye in many cases''.

"People may think Portuguese are making a lot of money cleaning other people's offices when someone else should be making that money,'' he said.

"We might sit down and talk with people that own office cleaning companies and they might say `you know Mr. Lister, I have two university degrees, but no-one will hire me and the reason my cleaning firm is so successful is because I have a business degree. I'd like to be a reinsurance expert. I didn't go to university to clean people's offices at night'.

"I am prepared to believe that. I am prepared to be open and listening.''