North Shore National Council of Women

Women's Affairs Minister Ruth Dyson
Address to North Shore National Council of Women
St Peters Church Hall, 11 Killarney St, Takapuna
5.30pm, Monday, 13 September 2004

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.]

Good evening and thank you for inviting me to speak to you today.

Mana Wahine
Earlier this year I launched Mana Wahine week, a celebration of the achievements of Mäori women and, in particular, their entrepreneurial spirit and their increasing achievement in business.
One of the comments made at that launch was how great it was to be at an event where the speeches focussed on achievements and the way forward, rather than spending a lot of time on the negative statistics.

We often focus on those statistics because we have to continually remind some sections of the community that we are addressing real needs, not dishing out “special treatment” to those who already have advantages.

This afternoon though, I want to focus mostly on the future and on the things planned, which will deliver real benefits for New Zealand women.

The Action Plan
Thirty years ago, the women’s movement put women’s rights on the agenda. Society has changed dramatically since then, and it’s time to look again at the challenges facing women and the best way to address them.

That’s why our government launched the Action Plan for New Zealand Women in March. The plan builds on achievements we have already made, gives us a vision for the future, and provides a framework for action across the whole of government.

This is the first time that any government has committed itself to an integrated plan to improve women’s lives. It’s a realistic, medium-term plan that sets priorities; goals that are achievable; milestones; and ways to monitor our overall progress.

It was developed following extensive consultation with New Zealand women, including my three social partners: the National Council of Women of New Zealand, Mäori Women’s Welfare League and PACIFICA.

The plan identifies three key themes for women:
·economic sustainability – which at its core is about having enough income to care for ourselves and our families
·work-life balance
·preserving our health and well-being.

These are real issues facing women and I want to give some concrete examples of what is being done in each area, to give you an idea of what the plan will deliver.

Economic sustainability
As I’ve just mentioned, economic sustainability is largely about women having enough income to do the things they need to do to care for themselves and their families. The concept covers a wide range of income, employment and educational issues.

Examples of areas in the plan that address economic sustainability include:
·equal pay for equal work
·student loans
·social assistance for women on low incomes.

Pay and employment equity
Women make up approximately 51 per cent of the New Zealand population and represent 47 per cent of the labour force. Although women’s participation in the paid workforce has increased, women are more likely to be in part-time work and have low pay.

Last year our government set up a taskforce, chaired by Retirement Commissioner Diana Crossan, to analyse how factors influencing pay and employment equity apply in the public service and the public health and education sectors, and develop a five-year plan of action to address them.

The issues around pay equity are complex for several reasons. The nature of employment relations and approaches to bargaining have changed significantly since the days of the Employment Equity Act. Awards no longer exist, and individual employment agreements predominate. While it is true the number of collective agreements has stabilised and is beginning to recover under the Employment Relations Act, there are still very few multi-employer collective agreements.
These changes are compounded by other factors such as the privacy surrounding pay rates and the lack of understanding in the community of pay and employment equity. A new approach is necessary.

The taskforce identified three key factors that contribute to the gender pay gap. The first is the undervaluing of women’s work – generally emotional and caring work. Implementing equal pay for work of equal value will address this factor, but on its own is not enough to close the gender pay gap.

The second factor is the position of women in the workforce, both the jobs that we do - that we’re more likely to be nurses than doctors, teachers than principals - and our positions in organisational hierarchies - that we’re more likely to be junior managers than chief executives. This is true for both the private and public sectors. The longer-term gains will come from employment equity measures that address this issue.

The third factor is how jobs are organised, the relationship between the structure of paid work and women’s job choices and progression, as well as how workplaces support women’s family responsibilities.

The key recommendations of the taskforce report, released in May, are that:
·the government should make a clear commitment to pay and employment equity in the public service, the public education and health sectors;
·tools should be developed to help assess pay and employment equity;
·existing processes such as collective bargaining and accountability mechanisms should be among the methods used to implement the plan to achieve pay and employment equity; and
·a unit should be set up to oversee the implementation of the action plan and a tripartite steering group appointed to monitor progress.

The government has endorsed these recommendations and is now proceeding to implement them.

Student loans
Ministry of Education statistics show that women take more than 11 years to repay their student loan compared to just under seven and a half years for men. The government has asked the ministry to look at ways to reduce the impact of student loans on women.

Modern Apprenticeships
Women’s participation in modern apprenticeships will be promoted by the Tertiary Education Commission, working closely with Industry Training Organisations.

At present females represent just 6.6 per cent of the total participants of the Modern Apprenticeships scheme. The Tertiary Education Commission will report back on progress by November 2005.

Social assistance improvements for women on low incomes
It shouldn’t be any surprise that women make up more than 80 per cent of sole parent families and are over-represented in lower-income groups. The action plan emphasises changes to social assistance that will improve levels of family income, reduce long-term social assistance dependency, and encourage participation in the paid workforce.

Major improvements in the level of family income assistance announced in the Budget represent an important step forward. The government’s aim is to ensure work pays, ensure families have enough income to give their children a good start in life, reduce the barriers to work, simply the benefit structure and ensure people receive their full entitlement.

The new regime will affect 61 per cent of all families with dependent children, netting them on average an additional $66 a week. Families in the lower income range ($25,000-$45,000) will net around $100 a week.

Supporting enterprise and business development
The plan also contains initiatives to support growth of businesses owned and operated by women; and to assist Mäori women in gaining governance and management skills.

Work-life balance
Work-life balance is the second major area of focus for the action plan. We have worked hard in this country to increase opportunities for women’s participation in the paid labour market and there have been great improvements in that area. What we haven’t done yet, is get the right balance between paid and unpaid work.

Work-life balance is not just an issue for women. Overall, a decade of a deregulated and competitive environment has reduced the quality of life for many workers, both men and women. A lot of men have more stress in their lives than is healthy. But women have paid the greater price because of the additional level of stress that accompanies their role as carers.

The need to achieve work-life balance emerged strongly during the consultation phase of the plan, and was raised particularly by Mäori women and Pacific women. Women emphasised their need for opportunity and choice in relation to participation in paid work and the many other roles they fulfil.

Mäori and Pacific women face particular stresses because of their broader family responsibilities, concentration in low paid work, higher level of community work and the younger age structure of their population groups.

In August 2003, the government established an inter-agency steering group, chaired by the Department of Labour, to develop policies to improve work-life balance. The public consultation phase has finished and officials are now looking at how effectively existing policies– such as paid parental leave and provision of affordable child care – support work-life balance, and considering the policy gaps for groups such as those working long hours or in non-traditional employment arrangements.

Access to childcare
A review of social assistance support for childcare is underway. The focus is on enabling families – and particularly those on low incomes and in sole parent households – to make the transition to paid employment, or to education and training.

In the Budget, we announced that many more families will be eligible for childcare subsidies and the rates increase significantly, with average gains of $23 a week per child from 2005. Eligible parents in work can get up to 50 hours a week childcare subsidy. Other parents can get up to nine hours subsidy a week.

The package will also improve adult:child ratios and increase the number of qualified teachers in the early childhood sector. In addition, we will deliver up to 20 hours a week free community-based early childhood education for all three and four year olds.

Paid Parental Leave
You may also be aware of the extensions to the paid parental leave scheme announced in March. Paid parental leave is an excellent example of the action plan in action, and embodies all its themes. It gives job and income security. It enables women to take time off work to have a baby, and improves the well-being of both mother and child.

Well-Being
The third main area of focus for the action plan is well-being and quality of life. Personal well-being includes both health and social issues - such as access to services, preventing violence against women and addressing the physical and mental health concerns that specifically affect women.

Examples of initiatives in the plan that address well-being include:

·enhancing opportunities for women with disabilities
·reducing teenage pregnancies
·reducing smoking rates – especially the very high rates amongst Mäori women
·working to reduce other barriers – such as language – that tend to stop women from accessing services.

Enhance opportunities for women with disabilities
To improve opportunities for women with disabilities, the Ministry of Women’s Affairs and the Office for Disability Issues have agreed to work together to develop new policies, particularly in the area of employment. This work will be completed by June next year.

Sexual and reproductive health
New Zealand has the third highest rate of teenage births in 28 OECD countries. This is one area covered in the government’s Sexual and Reproductive Health Strategy, launched in 2001.

In the second phase of the strategy, we are focusing on district health boards and primary health organisations, and the role they can play to improve the sexual and reproductive health of their communities.

We have to do better in the area of contraception. Research tells us that up to 60 per cent of pregnancies in New Zealand may be unplanned which means some babies do not get the best possible start in life.

We also need to reduce our high rates of sexually transmitted infections. That’s why this summer the Ministry of Health is launching a national safer sex campaign aimed at 15 to 19 year olds.
Mäori women’s smoking rates
The very high levels of smoking by Mäori – and especially Mäori women, who have the highest rate of any group – leads to the early and unnecessary deaths of thousands. Overall, 31 per cent of all Mäori deaths between 1989 and 1993 have been attributed to cigarette smoking.

Helping Mäori women to quit smoking will involve developing and implementing new initiatives as well as continuing to fund and support current stop-smoking programmes.

Telephone interpreting service
Work to overcome language barriers – to help women who are not fluent in English to participate in the paid workforce – is a priority in the action plan.

The Office of Ethnic Affairs’ pilot telephone interpreting service, which aims to improve access to government services for non-English speaking people and people with limited English, became an ongoing service from 1 July this year.

Conclusion
There is much more in the action plan, but these examples give you some idea of the content of the plan, and the tasks we have set ourselves.

You will have noticed that I mentioned a number of different government departments in the examples. This is because the plan is genuinely a whole-of-government approach to improving opportunities for women. Delivering the plan will involve the support and involvement of many government agencies.

Of course, the proof of the action plan is in the implementation, and that requires the commitment of us all – women in central and local government, business, the state sector, the community and voluntary sector, doing paid and unpaid work.

I believe our success depends on our ability to work together, to build on our collective strengths and to respect our differences. I am committed to ensuring that I, and the Ministry of Women’s Affairs, work collaboratively with women’s groups up and down the country.

New Zealand has a proud tradition of leading the world in women’s rights. The action plan gives us a unique opportunity to be at the forefront again.

At the launch of the plan, I quoted the words of Black Elk, a Sioux First Nation author who lived from 1863-1950. He said this:
“A vision without tasks is just a dream.
A task without a vision is drudgery.
A vision with a task can change the world.”

The Action Plan for New Zealand Women has the three essential elements for success:

·it gives us a vision to improve women’s lives;
·it has the government’s commitment underpinning it; and
·it sets out the tasks that will enable us to achieve that vision.

Thank you.