E ngā mana, e ngā reo, e ngā hau e whā.

Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Thank you for your warm welcome and thank you for the opportunity to speak at this year's Bloom Her Business Forum.

I would like to start this morning by congratulating all the winners from last night, it is always wonderful to see women being rewarded and recognised for their contributions to the world of business.

New Zealand has some tremendous entrepreneurial women and it is great to see so many of you here today.

We constantly say that small and medium sized businesses are the backbone of the New Zealand economy and increasingly the owners of those businesses are women and it is true.

At the last count, small and medium businesses with nine staff or less employed more than 370,000 New Zealanders - including 175,000 women.

Their success - your success - and New Zealand's success as a nation are closely tied. We must all ensure that we support small and medium businesses so that they can thrive in spite of this tough economic climate.

Studies show that women are increasingly setting up and running small and medium businesses applying their entrepreneurial skills.

The National-led Government understands this and is committed to making it easier for small companies and firms to do business during the economic recession.

That is why we have brought in a number of measures aimed at assisting small and medium businesses including tax changes, extending the jurisdiction of the Disputes Tribunal, setting up a free 0800 help line and providing free business health checks.

But ultimately, New Zealand's greatest asset is our people and we must ensure that those with entrepreneurial talents are given the room to develop their business ideas for their own success and that of the nation.

As Minister of Women's Affairs I am committed to ensuring that women's entrepreneurial skills will benefit beyond their own businesses.

International studies such as the Catalyst Report, looks at the Fortune 500 companies in the US and consistently finds that companies with more women directors on their boards outperform those with fewer across all measures.

Of course, part of the success of getting on boards and ahead in your own businesses is networking.

I understand that networking has been a big component of your conference and I hope that you have all taken the time to meet new contacts and expand your networks.

Networks are an important part of business success, as they allow us to use our individual talents collectively to reach our goals and to achieve our dreams.

When talking about networking, I like to use the analogy of a spider web.

Like a web, networking takes hard work, diligence and patience and brings together individual strands to create a strong and powerful environment in which to achieve your goals.

The benefit of spinning a strong network is that you have the opportunity to utilise your skills and talents and have them seen and recognised by others.

As business owners and entrepreneurs it is crucial that you expand your networks, not just in New Zealand, but globally to ensure that you can operate in as many markets as possible.

With the threads of leadership, confidence and passion and the fabric of a strong network - every woman has the ability to build a cloak of success. 

To understand why I'm so passionate about the power of networks it may be useful to know a little about my background.

I grew up in a small room in a shared apartment block in Hong Kong. My mum, two brothers and I lived in the one small room and shared the kitchen, toilet and bathroom with seven other families.

We didn't have much money - by New Zealand standards we were poor - but my parents were extremely proud and were committed to providing an education and a better life for their children.

My dad was a seaman, which meant he was away from home for most of the year, but it also meant that he was able to see many other countries and was able to imagine living somewhere else. That ‘somewhere else' turned out to be New Zealand.

We didn't come with a lot of assets, but my parents had made sure that I did arrive with a good secondary education, a strong system of values, and the determination to succeed.

I completed my tertiary education in Christchurch, graduating with a Master of Commerce with honours, and then set about starting my career.

I was able to get a good job as an accountant, but as a migrant I found I lacked strong local networks that would help me get ahead. Instead I had to create or join those networks - something which often took me outside of my ‘comfort zone'.

But, I was determined to not let my status as a woman or as a migrant hold me back so I decided to start saying ‘Yes' to every invitation I received.

The first thing I said ‘Yes' to was after-work drinks on Friday nights and it was at those Friday night work gatherings that I learned about a few things I wasn't taught at school in Hong Kong, but were important to my colleagues - like the rules of rugby and cricket.

We also talked about work, including office politics, and it wasn't long before the Partners at the firm encouraged me to join the Institute of Chartered Accountants.

In the Institute I continued to say ‘Yes', first to working on committees, then to joining the executive, and later to being Chair of the Canterbury Westland region.

I also said ‘Yes' to the Canterbury Chinese Association, Girl Guides, the National Council of Women, and many other organisations.

In 1989 I said ‘Yes' to standing for the Canterbury Regional Council in the local body elections and started forming my political networks.

It was these political networks that supported me and ensured my success in becoming New Zealand's first MP of Asian descent in 1996.

Throughout my political career I have called on my networks to help me overcome any new challenges, including my decision to stand for the seat of Botany in the last election.

However, when I started the campaign in Botany, I realised that my established networks would need to be expanded to include local people and businesses. 

During my campaign, I knocked on more than 10,000 doors and held 36 street corner meetings to meet the people in the area.

I had a pair of worn out shoes to show for it, but it was all worth the hard work when we won the seat with a more-than 10,000 vote majority.

The election win made me the first MP of ethnic descent to win a constituent seat and showed that women who are willing to work hard and display true leadership skills are able to overcome any barrier.

My journey has been a result of utilising the attributes that come naturally to women such as yourselves, like networking, passion and determination.

The fact that women possess these attributes is backed up by research which shows that there are nine recognised behaviours displayed by people in roles of leadership; people development, expectations and rewards, role modelling, inspiration, participative decision making, intellectual stimulation, control and corrective actions, individualistic decision making and efficient communication.

Of these, women are more likely to apply five of them (including people development and participative decision making), while men will typically apply four (including individualistic decision making and control and corrective actions).

Therefore, you would think that there would be more women in leadership roles and that we would be well-represented in the boardrooms of New Zealand's top companies 

However, this is not the case.

That is why the Ministry of Women's Affairs recently teamed up with Business New Zealand and the Institute of Directors to launch the Women on Boards business case.

The publication brings together all the leading domestic and international research to put forward a compelling case to have more women representation in the boardroom of our private businesses.

Currently, 45 women hold just 54 directorships out of 624 positions within our top 100 companies and that is why I am pleased the Ministry is working with the business sector to address this.

In this day and age, it is appalling that just 8.6 percent of the directors of our top 100 companies are women and I am determined to put this abysmal record behind us so New Zealand can move forward with confidence.

There are plenty of board-ready women in New Zealand, many of whom are registered with the Ministry's Nominations Service database, including many of you who are here today.

However, many women are not putting themselves forward or are not presented with the opportunities to sit on a board.

As Minister of Women's Affairs, I am determined to change this and that is why, following the launch of the Women on Boards publication, I wrote to the top 100 company Chairs and CEOs to bring their attention to the business case and to seek a meeting with them.

To be successful in business we must all have the confidence to back ourselves, the passion and drive to overcome hurdles and the leadership skills to know that we are able to conquer anything that comes our way.

Thank You.