four National Party supporters. We strive for action. All they strive
for is unction. Mr Bridges needs to
reveal to public who the leaker
is, or I
It
It is interesting that the last speaker started off by attacking
a woman's speech for being a woman. I
would challenge the Rt Hon Winston
Peters to put the stats that
he just had in
had in percentage and compare them with New Zealand First and
bring them back to the
House because we would really like to have a look at
them. Now on the term of women's
suffrage today, which I intend
to make the bulk of my
general debate, I would like to just put a shout out
to my grandmother who last Thursday,
13 September, turned
102 years of
Thank you. I think that's fantastic. Her name is Joan Jeffreys and she
lives in coastal Taranaki. She
was around when women had the vote
but not at the time when
women were actually able
actually able to stand in parliament. So there's a huge
amount of things that have happened in
her lifetime. I am very lucky
because I am the middle of five
generations. I still have my mum. I've
got a daughter as well as two sons and
I've got a granddaughter as
well as four grandsons so being in
the middle of five
againrations is very special. The things that I
actually notice are from
my grandmother's time to the time that we've
been here, and we are lucky enough now
to see
here, and we are lucky enough now to
parliament and I think worldwide that's a pretty special
thing that we've got going in this country.
But, you know, over the
times, the changes that have been made
in terms of what women were able
to get out and able to do,
has been incredible. I just noticed before I came into
parliament, one of the last
directorship roles I did before
I came into parliament was on the
board of New Zealand Young Farmers.
I'm the only grandmother that's
ever served on the board of New
Zealand young farmers because you max out
at 31, but actually I was
the Dairy NZ statistic partner on there and to be
a young Farmer you don't have
to be young. It was my luck to be
on there. But when they were
looking at new board members and strategic
partners or whatever, very
much the gender balance thing is very much
taken care of now in some of those
younger boards. It is more of the
older boards that are transitioning.
I spent most of my time on boards or
councils where I was probably
one of maybe one or one of two women
on a board and
board and the council's might have been three or four out of 35
to 40 people. So things have changed. I
would just like to put a call out,
as 2012 Inaugural Dairy Woman
of the Year, last night,
Rebecca Kogan from the West Coast, who is also
a dairy woman of the year was named
a rural woman
woman of the year was named a rural as
woman of the year was named a rural woman of influence. We also
have dairy woman of the year,
Katy Milne, who is now the first woman
President of Federated Farmers. So it is quite
a big thing for the rural areas and
often it is said
that it is very hard for women to win rural seats.
We certainly haven't found that
on our side of the House and somebody
went to library the other
day and just asked for the information, one
of the people in my team went
to library and came back
with the information that I'm the first woman
that has represented either
Taranaki, King Country or New
Plymouth in the
52 years of parliament. So I would also like
to acknowledge Harete Hipango who
acknowledge Harete Hipango who
represents the
represents the Whanganui seat who also has part of Taranaki now in
her electorate. So it is a very big year
for us. I am number 126 in
case represents
for us. I am number 126 in case anybody's wondering. So one of
the things that I just
wanted to perhaps bring up on a more serious note and
off the suffrage topic is the way
that we treat people. I know
we've got a lot of work going on at the
moment on the Employment
Relations Act and it creates a lot of
noise across the House but what I saw when
I came into parliament, it is very
difficult for the people that work
here when there's a change
of Government and a lot of
this open, transparent Government and the stuff
around the chief technology
officer has really been about emails
and transparency but I have
to think about people who lift up their
family and go to a place to get a
new job and then find that that job
doesn't exist anymore.
I think we have to be really, really
careful as people how we treat others so it
is not just about what
we put in legislation, it is about what we
do as people and how we enact
that legislation. So it's been a pleasure
to have a general debate today.
Thank you. I put a shout out to all
women in
women in New Zealand on suffrage day. Thank you.
women in New Zealand on suffrage day. Thank you. Poto Williams. I'm
122. I want to thank Louisa Wall and
Joanne Hayes our
122. I want to thank Louisa Wall and the Hon Anne Tolley
for everything they have done to make this suffrage
day commemoration so special
from day commemoration so special
from the breakfast to the camellia
to the number