Women's Affairs Minister Ruth Dyson
Address to Auckland Women's Centre
Auckland Women's Centre,4 Warnock St, Grey Lynn
7.30pm, 11 July 2005

Rau rangatira maa,
tenei te mihi ki a koutou i runga i te kaupapa o te ra.
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.

[Distinguished guests, greetings to you gathered here for this purpose today. Greetings once, twice, three times to you all.]

Thank you Paulette (Benton-Greig) for the welcome tonight and for the invitation to speak - it is great to be here with so many interesting women committed to improving their lives and those of other women. While this evening is focused on the issues facing women in the forthcoming election; before I begin,

I would like to acknowledge the following people
·Leonie Morris the projects co-ordinator;
·Lana (Hart) the former manager of the EEO unit from the Human rights Commission;
·My parliamentary colleague Sue Bradford; and
·Brenda Hill, Progressive Party candidate.

I think it is important to start this forum by acknowledging how much I respect how your organisation is committed to supporting and empowering women by providing a meeting place and educational and hobby courses and services in a women-only friendly and safe environment. You are changing lives locally and through that, you are helping change New Zealand for the better.

Labour addressing issues for women

I am here tonight in my role as Minister of Women's Affairs and as a representative of the Labour Party and I know you want me to address the following six topics -
·Violence against women
·Valuing women's unpaid work
·Work/life balance
·Equality in education
·Pay equity, and
·Maori women.

For my part, as a government minister, I stand proudly by our government’s record in regard to improving the status of women in New Zealand. Reducing violence against women, paid parental leave, support for childcare, family assistance, work-life balance, pay and employment equity – these are all issues that our government has already delivered on, or begun to address.

Violence against women
Violence against women, and domestic violence in particular, has a devastating impact on women and their children, affecting their health, economic status, social participation and general well-being. The Labour-led government's initiatives in addressing violence against women are impressive and include:

Te Rito: the New Zealand Family Violence Prevention Strategy that sets out the government’s key goals and objectives to build a society where families are free from violence. Good progress has been made in improving relationships between key government and non-government agencies. An example is funding allocated in Budget 2004 enabled police to establish pilot Family Violence Safety Teams to advocate for victims of family violence and ensure that the needs of families dealing with family violence are met.

Emerging from Te Rito has been the establishment of the New Zealand Family Violence Clearinghouse to be undertaken by the University of Canterbury’s Te Awatea Violence Research Centre and it will aid further understanding and prevention of family violence. Other initiatives include, Opportunity for All New Zealanders.

A programme launched in December 2004,it aims to improve social outcomes by identifying family violence as one of five critical social issues plus complementary to this scheme is the Safer Communities Action Plan to Reduce Community Violence and Sexual Violence, developed in the context of the Crime Reduction Strategy.

Also, a family violence ministerial team has been established, providing high level, visible leadership to agencies addressing family violence and, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs is researching the effectiveness of protection orders and evaluating possible improvements to the Domestic Violence Act 1995.

We are also challenging elder abuse. It is becoming a concern as it is estimated that between 2 to 5 percent of the older population are victims of elder abuse. Women made up two-thirds of the 1,546 established cases of abuse and/or neglect referred to Age Concern New Zealand between 1998 and 2001 and we have committed a total of $3 million over four years to strengthen, improve and expand services in elder abuse and neglect prevention.

Seven other programmes to target violence were funded in this years budget by over $32 million. I think you will agree that this represents a very impressive and comprehensive commitment by the Labour Government to address the issue of violence against women, but of course, government alone cannot prevent violence against women.

Every New Zealander has to take responsibility for tolerating, excusing and glorifying violence particularly as portrayed in the media, entertainment and sport. This was strongly highlighted in submissions and in the interim report for the Open Hearing on Violence against women and Children held in March 2005.

Valuing women’s unpaid work
Another challenge for women is the unequal burden of caring. The time use survey, Around the Clock, published in May 2001, found the responsibility of doing most unpaid work is with women, even when we women undertake full-time or part-time paid work. We have increased our participation in paid work but have continued to carry the major responsibility for unpaid work as well.

Several key findings were that 60 percent of men’s work is paid work whereas, in contrast, 70 percent of women’s work is unpaid and women’s unpaid work participation is greatest when they are most likely to be caring for young children, while men’s unpaid participation is greatest in retirement. Now, is that a surprise?

Our government supports women and their choices through initiatives such as paid parental leave and childcare subsidies. In July 2002, 12 weeks’ paid parental leave for employees was introduced and has subsequently been extended to allow 14 weeks’ leave from December this year and extended to include the self-employed from July 2006. Approximately 45,000 people have accessed paid parental leave since its introduction in 2002.

The 2005 Budget contained an extra $55 million over the next four years in childcare and employer support initiatives to enhance choices for parents. Funding will cover childcare subsidies and a commitment to 20 free hours of early childhood education in community-based centres from 2007 and full-cost funding for community-based services in targeted areas.

This will extend eligibility to 70 percent of families with children and increase funding for out-of-school care and recreation (OSCAR) providers and of course, our well-publicised Working for Families package is significantly boosting incomes for 300,000 low and modest income families with dependent children.

We are also supporting research by Statistics New Zealand for the Office for the Community and Voluntary Sector and Massey University aimed at increasing understanding and knowledge and effects of unpaid and voluntary work.

Taken all together, our policies benefit those mothers who make the choice to return to work and those mothers for whom staying at home is a viable choice.

Work/life balance
It is recognised that work-life balance is an issue facing both men and women, in paid work and in the voluntary sector and the Department of Labour is currently leading the government’s Work-Life Balance Project with a focus on adjusting workplace cultures and practices.

The project was introduced in November 2004 in response to public consultation and will receive $1.8 million over the next three years to implement policies to help achieve work-life balance – a critical factor in increasing both our quality of life and our standard of living. Issues it will consider are likely to include working hours, flexible working arrangements, protections and support for breastfeeding, staff retention, training and out-of-school childcare.

Equality in education
The very, very good news is that on average, women continue to excel in education. In 2003, nearly 60 percent of all graduates and 59 percent of degree and post-graduate qualifications were completed by women. However, there continue to be significant differences in the fields that each gender chooses to study; women are over-represented in caring occupations such as education, arts and hospitality but men are over represented in technical occupations such as engineering, architecture and agriculture and that reflects in pay differentials.

More good news is that last year’s National Certificate in Educational Achievement results show girls are academically outperforming boys in several subjects. Of 3.2 million credits, 1.7 were awarded to girls and 1.5 million to boys.

Our Labour-led Government, places high priority on education spending and recent initiatives expanded eligibility for student allowances, established a pilot financial budgetary service for students and introduced many new scholarships. The modern apprenticeships scheme has become more user-friendly to help women who had previously been disadvantaged by child rearing duties.

Pay equity
Since the Equal Pay Act was passed in 1972, there has been a significant closing of the gap between men and women’s pay, but pay equity is still an issue. In 2004, the average hourly earnings for women from wage and salary jobs was 85.6 percent of the average hourly earnings for men ($16.80 for women, compared with $19.62 for men). This gap is narrowing gradually but is influenced by a number of underlying factors such as the position of women in the workforce, the type of work that women do and the nature of paid work.

The Employment Relations Act 2000 was an important first step for pay and employment equity.

In addition, we undertook a review of minimum employment standards resulting in the Holidays Act, the introduction of paid parental leave and increases in the minimum wage. These have all contributed to improving pay and employment equity for women. Further steps have also been taken through the February 2003 establishment of the Equal Employment Opportunities Unit within the Human Rights Commission (represented at this election forum by Lana Hart).

In 2003, the Pay and Employment Equity taskforce was set up to advise the government on how factors contributing to the gender pay gap apply in particular parts of the public service sectors. The Pay and Employment Equity Unit was subsequently established in December 2004 and is presently overseeing of audits in 35 core government agencies.

Mâori women
Mâori women play a significant role in developing and sustaining Mâori communities culturally, socially and economically.

Government initiatives have focused on enhancing Mâori women’s low income levels because economic position is a key determinant of health and other social outcomes. An improvement in Maori women's overall economic position is designed to bring positive impacts across other areas.

Government initiatives include, the Action Plan for New Zealand Women that addresses issues specific to Mâori women across the areas of economic sustainability. Budget 2005 included more classroom release time for teachers of Mâori language, a student support package to give Mâori further opportunity in tertiary education and more financial support to the Mâori Women’s Development Incorporation – an indigenous financial institution to provide business loans and mentoring support to Mäori people by Mäori women.

In the area of health, there are numerous strategies to address inequalities for Mâori, including: He Korowai Oranga, the Mâori Health Strategy plus Reducing Inequalities that addresses the low health status of Maori and Whakatâtaka – the Mâori Health Action Plan 2002-2005 as well as the New Zealand Health Strategy and the New Zealand Disability Strategy.

Progress is being made. In the decade to 2004, Mâori women in the paid workforce rose 41 percent and the rate of unemployed Mâori women has dropped 27 percent. Mâori women completing tertiary qualifications has more than doubled and Mâori women in self-employment grew from 3,200 to 4,800.

Phew!!! I know I have probably baffled you with all our new strategies and initiatives, not to mention the figures and millions of dollars that have been pledged for these six important issues, but we should be rightly celebrating women's achievements under this Labour-led government. I want to say, that I think it is obvious that all women's issues are very much a key part of this government's agenda. The evidence is very clear that we are committed to identifying and addressing the barriers that hinder women from achieving their potential and it is vital that a Labour-led Government be re-elected to complete the job for woman that we set out to do.