Motions — Women’s Suffrage in New Zealand—125th Anniversary

I seek leave to move a motion without notice to recognise the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage in New Zealand.

💬 SPEAKER: Is there any objection to that course being followed? There is none.

I move, That this House mark the 125th anniversary of New Zealand women becoming the first in the world to win the right to vote, and celebrate the contribution of women to New Zealand’s democracy, past, present, and future.

Ki ngā wahine toa o tēnei Whare, tēnā koutou katoa.

[My compliments to the formidable women of this House.]

It is a privilege and an honour to be the first to speak in this special debate on this extraordinary day. My words today are intended primarily as a tribute—first and foremost as a tribute—to the women who led the change. To Kate Sheppard, to Margaret Sievwright, to the 25,000 women who signed the petition in 1893, to the women who were the first, 40 years later, to enter into Parliament, to the first Māori woman, the first woman in Cabinet, the first female Prime Minister, the first MP who gave birth, the first MP who breastfed in this House—I acknowledge every single trailblazer who has led the way for women in this place.

I also acknowledge the mothers of those women, because we stand on the shoulders of giants and they stood on the shoulders of mothers, and that’s a theme for me today. Amongst this seemingly ordinary set of people, the seemingly ordinary 25,000 women, has risen the extraordinary from that small act of signing a petition. They were bookkeepers, they were dressmakers, they were grocers, they were people who saw injustice and they rectified it. But we would be wrong if we assumed that their only quest was for access to this place or to even have a say in it and that had been achieved and we can all move on.

Take Margaret Sievwright, the woman who presented the suffrage petition alongside Kate Sheppard. Her fight was for equal pay, sexual education, and equal opportunities—and how far have we come? We still do not have equal pay in this country, and that it is why it is so fitting that on this day we have made it a priority to settle pay equity claims. And we continue to make progress. Thousands of women who do vital expert work with the mentally ill, with children with additional learning needs—we as a Government are doing what we can to right that longstanding wrong.

There is still too much domestic violence and violence perpetrated against women. Until women feel safe in their homes, safe in their workplaces, safe in their communities, on their streets, in their relationships, we will not have achieved equality in Aotearoa. That’s why, in the run up to this year’s Budget, we provided the first increase to baseline funding for front-line family and domestic services, like Women’s Refuge, in 10 years. That was the very least we could do. That’s why we supported and this House passed Jan Logie’s Domestic Violence—Victims’ Protection Bill, providing women with time off work to move home or recover from domestic violence, and I acknowledge you, Jan, in that work. The ultimate goal, of course, is to make sure it’s not perpetrated in the first place. Until women have financial security, until we lift them out of low-paid work, we will not have achieved the ultimate goal of the suffragette movement.

But we owe the suffrage movement more than that. As we celebrate 125 years, we have to ask ourselves: what has it got us? It’s got us all of these wāhine toa in this House, it’s got us three female Prime Ministers, but is that enough? Our young women may no longer question whether society will accept them in Parliament, but they may very well question whether Parliament is something they will accept, if it’s where they want to be. This is not an attractive place of work, and I would argue that for both men and women. Measures of success aren’t based on how many constituents you’ve helped but on how many scalps you’ve claimed. It’s not about the policies you’ve progressed but the amount of gotcha moments you’ve managed or dodged.

Now, there’s no one to blame. It’s a Westminster system, Mr Speaker, as you well know, and it’s robust, but how many find it an appealing career choice? But we need it to be, and not just for women but for people from all walks of life. Let me be clear, though: the suffragettes campaigned to have a stake in this place, to have a voice and a seat in it, not to be treated differently but the same. Hold us to account. Criticise us. Call us out for not doing enough, for going too slow, for not going fast enough, but call us out as politicians. Call us out as leaders. Call us out as humans. Call us out when we do wrong or make mistakes, but not when we do things differently. If we want Parliament to reach that milestone of 50 percent women or to be ethnically diverse, more diverse in its representation of age or career, then it needs to evolve.

This place should welcome diversity. It should welcome reaching 50 percent, and I hope that one day it will. Then we will finally be in a place where we say that we have respected the suffragette movement and have fully achieved what they set out to achieve. Kia ora koutou.

Mr Speaker, thank you. It is a great privilege, and it’s with great honour that I stand to speak on behalf of the Opposition on this motion to recognise and commemorate 125 years since New Zealand proudly became the very first nation in the world to give women the right to vote. There is nothing that creates more pride in Kiwis than when we are travelling around the world—and I was in the UK recently with yourself, in fact, Mr Speaker, and we visited the House of Commons, and we realised how far ahead we were of so many countries around the world, and how long it took the rest of the world to catch up with New Zealand.

I, like the Prime Minister, want to really use this time to express my admiration and my deep gratitude to all of the women who have come before me, all of the women who made it possible for us to be in this House, for us to participate fully in the life of New Zealand: of course, Kate Sheppard, the suffragette movement more fully, but also Sir John Hall—who I talked about in my maiden speech, who comes from my seat—who had the courage from within the system to say, “Actually, this isn’t right.” Kate, of course, is a national hero, as she should be, but I also want to acknowledge those male leaders at the time who stood with them and enabled New Zealand to make that change.

It seems to me that in 125 years we have come an awfully long way in respect of the role of women in this country, but I have to acknowledge that we’re not there yet, and when I give speeches to women around how I see the role of women in New Zealand, I always make that observation. As much as I would like to say the job is done, it is not. And I think the way that all of us repay the legacy of Kate Sheppard and her brave team of suffragettes is to ensure that we leave it a little easier for those who come after us.

I want to acknowledge the raft of strong women who have come through this Parliament, actually in all walks of New Zealand life, who have done exactly that—taken on a challenge, worked that bit harder, and been that bit better to get them there—and as a result of doing that, have not only made the path a little easier but inspired so many young women who look up to them.

It’s quite remarkable to me when I look at Canterbury—the area, of course, that I represent—and note how many of those strong leaders come from there: of course, Kate Sheppard; Sir John Hall; our first woman MP, Elizabeth McCombs; our first woman Cabinet Minister; our first woman Prime Minister; our first woman Minister of Finance—the list is quite long.

But Sir John Hall, who I mentioned before, made the point that he thought that women coming into politics would bring decorum and civilised behaviour, as we had “a far keener insight into character”, and, clearly, he was right. He also noted—and I’m sure Grant Robertson would be interested in this—that women are far less likely to countenance official extravagance, and I congratulate Sir John on his foresight.

This morning, we had a bit of a ceremony in the Grand Hall, where all of the women MPs in this House were recognised, and we were told our number in terms of which number we were in the hierarchy of women MPs. I was a little horrified to find out that I was No. 98. Now, I’ve been in this House 10 years, and that means in the 90 years that women have been able to be here, I’m only the 98th. What’s good news is that in the 10 years since, we’ve had another 50. So we’re off to a slow start, but we’re catching up fast.

There’s no question in my mind, though, that we still face challenges. I recall very vividly standing for selection and being told quite explicitly that they wouldn’t vote for me because what sort of mother would I be to my children if I was in Wellington doing this job—how could I be a good mother and do this job? My response, after picking my jaw up from the floor, was “Actually, I’m doing this for my kids.”, because we come here very definitely with an eye on how we make it better for the generations after us.

I want to leave this place knowing that my daughter’s generation and, one day, potentially, my grandchildren’s generation—although, if my kids are listening, no time soon, please—know that they can come here, and I would like to think that one day, they will be standing here, speaking in a debate like this, and being able to look back with astonishment at how long it took the Parliament of New Zealand and New Zealand to really utilise the full potential of half its population.

I remember flying up to Wellington one day and being asked by an air hostess on Air New Zealand, “You come up here a lot. Do you work in Wellington?” “Yes.”, I replied. By this point I was Minister of Justice, by the way, and she said to me, “Whose secretary are you?” She was a lovely woman and I don’t want her to feel bad, but it still astounded me that that’s the natural assumption that, unfortunately, is still so prevalent in New Zealand.

It is an honour to stand here to speak and to thank the women who have come before us. It is an honour to represent New Zealand in this House of Parliament, but I hope one day that women who come after us will be able to look back and be able to say, “The job is done.” It is not yet, but we will continue the fight.

Kia ora, Mr Speaker. Can I join with the colleague Amy Adams, who’s just resumed her seat, and thank the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians group for the camellias that they have given us. They come from an artist on the East Coast, in the Hon Anne Tolley’s area. She’s worn stunning examples of this artist’s work before. They are each individually numbered. There are, currently, 149 of these in existence. So I thank them very much for something that I can pass on to my daughter and, hopefully, through to my grandchildren.

We do all walk in the footsteps of others, and I want to take this moment to acknowledge those women who have participated in politics who have never sought to be in this House. To those women who, over the years, have organised the cake stalls, the raffles, and the fund-raising dinners, and who are electorate committee chairs and secretaries and treasurers and committee members—they, sometimes even more than those of us who have been elected to this place, have been the backbone of New Zealand’s democracy for decades.

I want to acknowledge my maternal great-grandmother, who, when her grandchildren were abandoned, her granddaughter being two and her grandson being five, disobeyed the instructions from her husband to bring back only the boy because he could work—and, I confess, she was a great fan of Robert Muldoon. I want to acknowledge my paternal grandmother, who, when one of her granddaughters became a single teen parent, said, “It’s just a baby. We can manage.” I want to acknowledge my mother, who campaigned for Gary Knapp in East Coast Bays, and then helped to establish a new political party 25 years ago this year. I watched her commitment to her country and her belief that it needed something different than what had been offered before, even in those moments when it threatened her own marriage. I want to acknowledge my daughter, who even when she’s called a feminazi continues to challenge the unconscious bias she meets.

The first election I ran in was the 2011 election. The first phone call I got after I was, surprisingly, elected was from, I think it was, the New Zealand Herald. The reporter asked me, not unlike Ms Adams, “How are you going to balance your children with your housework and being an MP?” I asked the gentleman what Mark Mitchell had said, because I said, “Mark Mitchell’s got a bigger house than me and he’s got more children.” So that’s not a knock at Mark Mitchell; he is a fantastic father and a wonderful husband. But there was silence on the end of the phone, because I don’t believe Mr Mitchell had been asked the same question. Then Campbell Live showed up at my house and there were two lovely young men to interview me, but they just kept saying again and again and again how amazing it was that a stay-at-home mum was going to Parliament. “That’s amazing! Isn’t that amazing? That’s amazing that a stay-at-home mum is going to go to Parliament!”

One of the things that we need to be aware of in this House, and sometimes we forget it, is that we are watched. We are constantly watched by girls and by boys. So when we use and say certain things in this House, like, perhaps, when a female parliamentarian is being very passionate about a topic and the tone of her voice rises, perhaps we need to be a bit more careful when the next speaker stands to make sure we don’t use the words “shrill”, “squeaking”, or “screech”. Those are words that are used quite often to get girls to lower their voice, to get girls to be quiet. One of the pieces of advice I got when I first came into this House after I’d, obviously, got far too passionate about a couple of topics was “Lower your chin and lower your voice.” That person gave me that piece of advice to protect me from what was, at that time, members on the other side of the House who would use that to identify or to try and “calm” a woman down over a topic. We are watched in this House. We are watched.

Recently, a member of this House stood and belittled some of the voluntary and community work that stay-at-home mums do on boards of trustees. We are trying to get more women into this House. When we belittle the skills that they gain during the periods of time when they are out of the workforce, they see us. So, as my colleagues have said, we have somewhere to go. We must continue to be aware that we are watched. But I want to acknowledge the male colleagues in this House who stand up every day for us, who are part of the team, and who make sure that we’re all just getting on with the job for New Zealand. Kia ora. Thank you.

It’s an absolute pleasure to stand in the House and speak on this very special day for New Zealand women and for the New Zealand Parliament, as the 74th woman elected to Parliament. I must say it was with some amazement to find when I became the Minister of Education that I was the first ever woman Minister of Education in New Zealand, in 2008. Can I also thank Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians for the breakfast this morning and for these wonderful camellias. I’m so privileged to have working in my office a fantastic artist in Robyn Watchorn and she is so proud. She’s home ill and she’s watching as all the women in Parliament are wearing these special camellias.

It is good to remember today, marking the passing of the legislation, and also remembering the amendment that was made to it at that time. There was only one amendment and it removed our right to stand for Parliament. That wasn’t reinserted until 1915, but it wasn’t until 1933 that we had the first woman elected.

In preparation for this debate today, I researched what had happened in my electorate for women in public office, and I have to say it’s a pretty dismal story. If you look at Whakatāne, where the first town council was established in 1900, it wasn’t until 1953—50 years later—that Mrs Winstone was elected to the council. If you look at Ōpōtiki, which was established in 1877 and had its own town council in 1899, it was 1974 before the first woman was elected to that council.

Kawerau was a lot better, I have to say. Kawerau’s town council—and then a board of commissioners, and then it became a borough—was established in 1954 and the first woman was elected in 1959. Since then they’ve had two or three women on every council since, and, of course, in 1986 they elected Lyn Hartley as mayor. I should say—poor old Whakatāne; sorry, I missed it out—that in 1989 Whakatāne elected a woman mayor, Mrs Lorraine Brill, and in 2006, in the whole of the electorate, the only woman chief executive of a council was Mrs Diane Turner.

The East Cape electorate has had many shapes over the years, and when it was the Bay of Plenty, it had no women representatives in this Parliament. When it became the East Cape electorate in 1978, Anne Fraser—now Anne Collins—was the first woman elected in 1984, and I’m the second from that part of the world.

So let’s turn to Gisborne. Did Gisborne do any better? Sort of. In 1925, Agnes Scott was elected to the hospital board, but it was 1962 before a woman was elected to the Gisborne District Council. It was 1960 when Esme Tombleson was elected as an MP for the Gisborne area.

There is an amazing story that epitomises the struggle and the prejudice that those early suffragettes faced from Gisborne. In 1915, Agnes Scott stood for the hospital board in Gisborne. There were 5,000 registered voters and she got 900 votes, but came fifth for four places. A couple of months later, one of the members of the board resigned. Now, if that were today, the next highest candidate would take their place on that board. But the mayor of the town invoked a very unknown bylaw, took it to the council for a vote, it was tied twice, and on his casting vote he elected himself to be the replacement member. So she missed out. So Gisborne could have been one of the very early places—1915.

One other story from Ōpōtiki that I just want to share is that the majority of the women who stood, signed the petition, and then voted were ordinary housewives. They described themselves as domestic workers. That’s what this is about—the ordinary women of New Zealand standing up and having a voice. Kia ora tātou.

Mr Speaker, thank you. Tēnā koe. It’s with very great pride that I stand here as Acting Minister for Women to acknowledge and celebrate 125 years of women’s suffrage. Having been out collecting signatures on petitions—again, for the asset sales referendum—I know personally just the slog that that takes. But this is in the modern era, when we’ve got telephones and we can easily mobilise. So I pay tribute to the women who, more than 125 years ago, collected petition signatures in the days when transport was a horse and cart, was walking through muddy streets, was having to push against the power of a controlling husband, or was having to organise late into the night and disobey those husbands. There were women who lost their jobs, and much worse, because they were fighting for women’s suffrage. But it was their collective power that ensured that petitions were brought to this House in 1891, in 1892, and, finally, in 1893, when it was successful, with 32,000 signatures that had been collected through a lot of hard slog.

The right to vote is a fundamental part of our democracy. It is what brings us all here. It is what gives us the mandate. It is what determines which party is in Government. It’s what gives us the strength in select committees to examine the legislation which the Government puts before the House. It is what gives us the mandate to pass law. It is a fundamental right to vote, and the fact that it was denied to women for so long and then, as a result of all of that advocacy and all of that fighting, it was provided in 1893 is something we should celebrate.

New Zealand Aotearoa as a country is enormously progressive when it comes to matters electoral. Our MMP Parliament has ensured that we represent New Zealanders much more fairly, and that we have more diversity in this place. I think that goes back to those campaigns in the 1890s to provide us with suffrage. As the Prime Minister noted, those early suffragists were also campaigning on the issue of equal pay and said that it was the most important issue after the franchise. It had a huge impact on national welfare. So the suffragists knew that getting the vote was only the start. Being fairly valued and being paid in the workplace was next on their agenda.

So it’s really fitting today, and I was very proud to stand alongside Minister Lees-Galloway on the forecourt of Parliament at the New Zealand Council of Trade Unions’ picnic and announce this Government has introduced changes to the Equal Pay Act to ensure that we have pay equity in New Zealand. For too long, women doing very similar work to men—or the same work—have not been paid the same. That will end with the changes to the Equal Pay Act and the ability to use our negotiation and bargaining system to implement pay equity.

I want to acknowledge not only the thousands of women who are involved in ensuring that we have the right to vote but all of the hundreds and thousands of women who are working today in female-dominated industries. One of my early jobs was working in a laundry in a rest home, and then cleaning toilets and working in the kitchen in that rest home. There were some lovely Pasifika women there, but the boss was a man. We followed his orders, and I think our pay was significantly less than his. But it’s doing that hard work, that mahi, that is so essential to the way families work, that is essential to providing incomes to families, and that is essential to how society works. But women doing that work haven’t been properly acknowledged, and that is why the changes to the legislation are so important in delivering more money to households and ensuring that we move towards a fairer society.

I’m here today as Acting Minister for Women because our Minister for Women has a new baby. It’s a great place to be a woman in New Zealand right now when our Prime Minister can be in Parliament and have a new baby. The photograph we have just had of all the women MPs in the library, with the Prime Minister holding a baby, with the Speaker having been in the Chair with a baby, reminds us that that is what we are here for. That is why we got the vote. That is why we’re changing the law to make it fairer for all families, for all tamariki, so that they have a better future. That right to vote is the fundamental starting place for that. Tēnā koutou, nō reira, tēnā koutou.

💬 David Seymour: Thank you, Madam—

Are you seeking the call?

💬 David Seymour: Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker. I called just earlier.

I call David Seymour.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Can I join with other speakers in saying that it is an enormous honour and a great privilege to stand in this debate on the 125th anniversary of our country leading the world on a very important issue. I have to say, parts of me wish that ACT’s deputy leader, Beth Houlbrooke, was here to speak in this debate on my behalf. I think she would have been a fabulous member of Parliament, but last year the voters disagreed on that issue.

Indeed, I was stunned, Madam Deputy Speaker, to learn that you were only the 74th woman elected to this House. My first thought was, “Surely she hasn’t been here that long.” But, you know, I’d like to point out that the ACT Party has made a vastly disproportionate contribution to those first 70 or 80 women. Muriel Newman, Deborah Coddington, Donna Awatere, Heather Roy, Hilary Calvert, Patricia Schnauer, and Penny Webster were all women elected to this House for the ACT Party over the past 20 years. It’s a great point of pride to the party that we have elected a vastly disproportionate number of women to what other parties have done throughout the history of this House. I should add to that somebody who was not elected, but a wonderful leader in our party’s history: Catherine Isaac—most recently recognised for her dogged and determined efforts to have partnership schools, kura hourua, made a reality in this country.

I should also acknowledge that it is impossible to get elected in New Zealand—if the Epsom electorate is any indication of normalcy in this country, and it’s debatable—if you do not have a connection with the networks of powerful women who really run the place. I wouldn’t be here if it was not for the powerful support of people such as Dame Rosanne Meo, Dame Rosie Horton, Dame Lesley Max, Dame Jenny Gibbs, the Hon Chris Fletcher, and Jillian Friedlander, who were all incredibly important in my election because they are so powerfully connected through our community in the Epsom electorate.

I want to take this opportunity, also, to talk about somebody I haven’t previously spoken about in this House but who would be incredibly proud of our country today and of the example that Kate Sheppard set—prouder, I suspect, if she actually had a daughter in this House. My mum was one of those women who was at the vanguard of women who were the first to make it to the top of their careers. As one of the last people in the Western World to contract the polio virus, she was told that she would not drive, go to university, work, or have children. Well, you can make your own judgment on the children—I will say my brothers are quite accomplished. She did become the chief pharmacist for the Northland District Health Board after going through postgrad at Otago, although I maintain the critics were at least half right about her driving. I want to put on record in the Hansard that she is one of many women who had that spirit, that Kate Sheppard spirit, and would be so proud to be here today, if only she could be.

I think it’s a great source of pride for all of us that New Zealand led the world. It is one of the seminal characteristics of our country that we are the little country that can. And we should always remember that we as a country have the ability, and perhaps have the obligation, not to try to follow the world—as we heard from some submitters at the Finance and Expenditure Committee on monetary policy just this morning—but actually to be the best and to lead the world.

I’ll finish by reflecting what our Prime Minister said at the beginning of this debate: that we are not a static society. Parliament is just one institution that will be remade, no doubt, as people try to remake the institutions in their own image with each passing generation. And I suspect that this country is not done with gender politics, just quietly. I suspect that we will see the family remade, that we’ll see the role of men in the family being enhanced, just as the role of women in the workplace has been enhanced. I think, standing on the shoulders of Kate Sheppard, we have a wonderful future as a country, and I’m so proud to be honouring her today. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. This morning it was a fantastic opportunity with the Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians to celebrate 125 years of suffrage. We were honoured to hear from two of our fantastic former members of Parliament—and former Ministers—Dame Ann Hercus and, of course, Dame Jenny Shipley, as a former Prime Minister. They both had really important messages for us to reflect on, on the 125 years that have been and—more importantly, I think—the 125 years that are ahead of us. So I am proud to have been presented with this white camellia, Madam Deputy Speaker, made by Robyn Watchorn from your electorate. It recognises my place in this House as the 108th female MP—which doesn’t sound like a lot.

One of the things that we do today is we celebrate our female Prime Ministers, and I think as a country we are leading many other countries. But before we get too excited, it is the 52nd Parliament, and we are on our third female Prime Minister. So my comments have a bit of a, you know, positive and a negative, and I think we need to always make sure that we focus on, yes, what we’ve achieved, but the fact that there is still a lot of work to be done, and—[Bell rung]

💬 DEPUTY SPEAKER: Oh, sorry—wrong button.

Thank you. That was going to be very short! With Nicola Willis entering Parliament earlier this year, we’ve achieved 40 percent of our Parliament being women, which is a significant achievement. This is our highest, and one that many other countries around the world recognise. The last Cabinet in the 51st Parliament had a strong line-up of women, and this has flowed through to the front bench of the Opposition: Paula Bennett, Amy Adams, and Judith Collins—three of the Opposition’s top five and fantastic examples of women leaders, each powerful, competent, capable, and unique women leaders.

It’s a fact that in the National Party we have a number of very smart, formidable women who have carved out careers both before entering Parliament and while they’ve been here. Madam Deputy Speaker, you spoke in your contribution about the footsteps that you followed in. In my electorate, which covers a number of towns, I follow in the footsteps of Rona Stevenson, of Marilyn Waring, and of Katherine O’Regan, and also—in part of the electorate—Dame Tariana. I think it’s really important that each and every one of us in this House, particularly those women MPs, focus on the message that we leave for the women that will follow our footsteps and we make sure that we wedge the door wide open and make sure that their work in this place is made easier by our work in this place.

Kate Sheppard and pioneering women and men who have worked tirelessly and fought for the right of women to vote gave us a place as a world leader in gender equality, and I want to recognise the efforts of women across New Zealand and how far we have come. We’ve got to continue to blast through the barriers and take even more steps to equality.

I was fortunate to serve as the Minister for Women, and I want to acknowledge the current Minister for Women, who is on maternity leave, the Acting Minister for Women, and those that have formerly held the role.

I would often get asked the question of why do we still have a Ministry for Women, and the answer, of course, is simple. We still have a gender pay gap of 9.2 percent. We are well under-represented in senior management and leadership roles, and this is particularly sharp in the private sector. Women are twice as likely as men to be victims of family violence, and most of that abuse and assault occur in their very own homes. Until we can say we have equal rights, equal choice, equal opportunities, and that women are valued equally, we still need a ministry dedicated to working for all New Zealand women and we need every New Zealand woman and every New Zealand man from one end of this land to the other to stand up for equality. Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker.

Can I just acknowledge member No. 108, Louise Upston; I am No. 107. It is a privilege to be able to speak in this debate. I think it is a very rare occurrence when we all agree with the speeches that are being given across the House, but today is definitely one of those days, and I alongside everyone else here am privileged to be able to acknowledge the women leaders of 125 years ago who made it possible for us to vote and to be able to stand here today.

I’ve listened very closely to some of the speeches that have gone before mine, and I want to acknowledge that despite the fact that we come from different sides of the House, we share very similar experiences. I can’t say, however, like Minister Martin, that I was ever asked by anyone to lower my voice. And I also can’t say that the question of what would happen to the housework was ever put to me when I came in here, because I never did it before anyway. But I think it is important that we share our stories—the negative stories and the positive on our own journeys to getting here—because it means that others that have the same experiences realise that they are not alone, and it also embarrasses some of those who might tell, or set about creating, the narratives that they do about women.

I wanted to share two of mine. One was when I went to run as the Labour candidate for Waitakere, where someone had decided to create the narrative that perhaps I wasn’t the right person because I was too much like the National candidate I’d be running against. She just happened to be a woman, to be brown, and to be a solo mother. And my response to that was: have we ever questioned one white man going up against another? Of course not. My second experience was when I was looking, actually prior to that, to run for another seat in New Zealand, and the rhetoric that went around was “We just don’t think she’s the right person. This electorate is not ready for a Pacific Island lesbian.” Being a Pacific Islander wasn’t a surprise, but being a lesbian was a complete shock to me. Not that that should be a problem in this day and age, especially in the Labour Party.

Many of us have endured those narratives and have become more resilient because of it, and many of us who have experienced it are here in this House today or have been in this House before us here today. And I want to acknowledge that we share those stories. I am a Pacific woman, only the second Pacific woman to serve in this House, and for me that is a privilege, and I want to acknowledge Luamanuvao Dame Winnie Laban, who was the first Pacific woman who entered here, in 1999. It took us until 1999 to get a Pacific woman in this House, and I am so proud that here in 2018 out of eight Pacific members of Parliament, we now have four Pacific women members of Parliament, and in that I want to acknowledge Minister Jenny Salesa, my colleague Anahila, sitting next to me, and also the Assistant Speaker Poto Williams.

In saying that, we also have to acknowledge that some women are even further away than others from the realisation of gender equality. Māori and Pacific women are more likely to earn less, be in lower-skilled jobs, and are less represented at decision-making tables. And so, as we strive towards gender equality, we have to acknowledge that we need to take all women with us to be able to realise gender equality in its true form in this country.

Many of us have women who have supported us to this place, and in my last 30 seconds I will acknowledge one woman who did that for me. It was a school principal at secondary school who acknowledged that I had potential, saw that I was enduring some difficult times, and took me into her home, with her husband, to support me to get through that year in order for me to go to university. I want to acknowledge Jane Gordon and other wonderful women out there who support women to achieve and to get into leadership positions to make a difference, like we are able to in this House. Fa‘afetai lava.

Madam Deputy Speaker, it’s a privilege to be here and speak in this debate. Today is a celebration. It’s a celebration and a reflection. It is a privilege to give a bit of a roll-call to acknowledge that we are here, 149 female members of Parliament on, in the footsteps of Dame Jenny Shipley, the Rt Hon Helen Clark, Marilyn Waring, Katherine Rich, Hekia Parata, Dame Annette King. Some extraordinary women have come before us, and they have fought so hard for our rights, but the only reason that we have been able to be in this House is because of a group of suffragettes. We need to take a moment to acknowledge their courage, their perseverance, but also the men who fought alongside them.

We also need to acknowledge that it is not just about us. It is not about this House, and I want to acknowledge all of the women in this debate who have said, “Yes, it is a time for celebration, to talk about what we’ve all done, but to acknowledge that we’re not there yet.” Today is the day that we reflect on that woman who doesn’t get the promotion because her male colleague is out there playing golf with the boss.

We reflect on the young woman who doesn’t go into engineering or doesn’t become a builder because she is discouraged by those males that say, “Don’t do that.” We reflect on the woman who is regularly beaten and broken because we have too high rates of domestic violence in this country. We reflect on the extraordinary public servants, and they are there, busy working away today, and there many women who have never become the heads of our agencies. We take a moment to reflect on them, and we see them—and for those of us that have been Ministers, they come into our offices and we know that they haven’t quite got those roles. We also reflect on those women who have been strong in business for many years, and we’ve got some incredible business leaders in New Zealand, from Dame Rosanne Meo to Joan Withers to many other women who never quite make those boards in New Zealand. We reflect on the women in many of our communities that never get paid quite as much, and they don’t know exactly why but they know that there’s a ceiling. We reflect on those other young women in our schools that are self-harming because they don’t have the confidence because maybe they have been bullied.

And it’s not just about men; there’s many other things that cause discrimination in our society and I want to acknowledge that—as someone, who, like the many people who are telling stories in this House, and I think stories are powerful—I remember when I was considering standing for Auckland Central for the National Party and a longstanding National Party delegate pulled me aside and said, “Look, you’re a young women. Really, maybe you should go off and have children. And, by the way, if you really are interested in this politics thing, maybe you should stand for local government.” I reflect on those stories because we have all had those stories. I reflect on being a young female Cabinet Minister, walking into a function, thinking I was going up to give a speech, when someone turned to me and said, “Could you just get me a drink, love?”

We have all had those moments, but our legacy in this House is not just about us, and we must—and I do want to reflect on the Prime Minister’s comments—fight for equality in this House. We are not there yet. We can treat each other better, and we can make this place much more female friendly for the people that come after us. But our true legacy in this House will be about those women that I have mentioned: those women who exist in our communities; those women who need equal pay; those women who should have the equal rights in terms of boards; reducing domestic violence; ensuring that more young women are not self-harming. That will be our true legacy.

So I want to leave this House with two quotes. I want to have a quote from Kate Sheppard, because I think it is powerful: “All that separates, whether of race, class, creed, or sex, is inhuman, and must be overcome.” She said that and we must acknowledge what a visionary and what a courageous person she was. But I also want to quote Helen Clark, and I want to acknowledge both Dame Jenny and Helen, because they have both been very kind to many members in this House, including myself. She said, “Someone’s got to break the glass ceiling, and once [it’s] broken, everybody else [clamours] up behind.”, and we need to smash through those ceilings. Thank you.

Tēna koe, Te Māngai o Te Whare. I’m WP—woman parliamentarians, I’m calling us—No. 97 and one of 149, but actually one of 1,395, which represents 10.68 percent of the parliamentarians that have represented Aotearoa New Zealand. Today we’re 40 percent, so I absolutely agree with my colleague Amy Adams: we’re getting there and we’re going to get there sooner. But if we look back at our history, it took 40 years before one of us was able to stand in this House as a member of Parliament after we won the right to vote.

I want to acknowledge our suffragettes and also our activists, actually, because what they did was provide that opportunity for us to be here. It was through their activism: standing on street corners, getting people to sign petitions, actually engaging with our men. And I want to acknowledge that, actually, we’re progressive because of the actions of our men. I want to thank our men for giving us that opportunity, but it was kind of ironic, because we have Mr Seddon out the front. I don’t know if many people know, but actually he tried to sabotage the vote. You know, there were two independents who voted for the Electoral Act in 1893 that enabled us to win, in spite of the Prime Minister of the day. So history is really important and this is a day where we remember that history. We remember the Kate Sheppards and the Meri Te Tai Mangakahias.

But what I wanted to share today is that 125 years ago, that Electoral Act received Royal assent, but many of us might not know what it actually said. It declared, for the purposes of voting that the word “person” should include women. We were not considered to be a person. So it took 30 years for us, as women, to be considered “persons” and therefore citizens, and therefore available and eligible to vote. But Hon Anne Tolley is absolutely right: the other thing that they did in that Act, and I’m going to quote from section 9 because this was the only other section—there were 170 sections and 20 schedules: “No woman, although duly registered as an elector, shall be capable of being nominated as a candidate, or of being elected as a member of the House of Representatives, or of being appointed to the Legislative Council …”. Next year, on 29 October, it is actually the 100 year celebration of the fact that we got the right to stand.

So, it’s interesting when we think about us being the first in the world to vote, and that’s why I like reflecting on the legacy of someone like Meri Te Tai Mangakahia—an amazing Māori woman who spoke in the Kotahitanga Parliament. She said, “Not only should we vote, but we should be able to stand, and why? Because I’m a landowner, I know how to manage my land. I’ve got the capability, and, actually, our men have failed. They’ve gone to England to negotiate with the Queen, and we need to send women over because we will be able to engage with another woman and get things sorted.”

And so it is times like this where we acknowledge those people who have come before us, but we also need to acknowledge the suffragettes, the activists of today, which is why I’m wearing this really cool power jacket. Actually, Maggie, it’s from the Takapuna Lake House Art Centre, because what that particular organisation decided to do this year to celebrate suffrage was to provide an opportunity for artists to demonstrate the relevance of suffrage to them. So it has been about the legacy of Kate Sheppard, it has been about equal pay, but this jacket—and I’m just going to show you the back—was made by an activist called Rachel Rowlands. It’s called “My Mind” and it says, “Women can do anything”, and we have done everything, and imagine if riding a bike meant you were too independent—because, apparently, if you rode a bike in the 1890s you were way too independent. So that’s why this is a biker jacket, and it represents freedom, it represents independence, it represents daring, and it does pay tribute to Kate Sheppard and the $10 note.

But I think what it also says and speaks to is the fact that suffrage today is as relevant as it was 125 years ago, and until a time when this place, I believe, is 50:50 men and women, every single private board is 50:50 men and women, and same with our—I’m a proponent of quotas, because if we can’t get to these places organically, then actually we need to intervene, and if those mechanisms work, then that’s what we have to do. Kia ora.

Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. Today we began our celebrations of the 125th suffrage anniversary with a breakfast. Our two keynote speakers—fabulous women—were the Hon Ann Hercus and the former Prime Minister the Rt Hon Dame Jenny Shipley. They both left us with some pearls of wisdom, and one I shall recite. As Dame Jenny noted—[Interruption] and it’s not the one you think it is—in her speech, “We should focus on fighting for something”—for something—“rather than fighting with each other.” And that’s what I have heard in the speeches that have been given here today: that we should focus on fighting for something rather than fighting with each other.

I stand in remembrance of a remarkable woman, Kate Sheppard, who, against all odds—both personal and public—fought and won the right for New Zealand women to vote. The date: 1893. The person who signed the new Electoral Act into law was a Governor of New Zealand called Lord Glasgow.

One would think that post-1893, the pathway for women would be a sweet, sweet ride, but it wasn’t and it hasn’t been. Being the first in the world to give women the vote is a proud position to be in, but, really, how far have we come over these last 125 years? From 1893 it took 26 years before women gained the right to stand for Parliament, and another 14 years before the first woman MP, by the name of Elizabeth McCombs, from Christchurch, would enter Parliament. Countries like Ireland and Finland beat New Zealand to these two facts, even though suffrage for them came some 25 years - plus later.

For Māori women, the journey would be longer. It wasn’t until 1935 that the first Māori woman stood as a candidate. In that year, Rehutai Maihi contested the Northern Maori seat. Older Māori who did not believe that she should do that went against her and she only garnered 162 votes.

In 1949, Iriaka Ratana become the first Māori woman to win a seat in the New Zealand Parliament when she successfully contested the Western Maori seat when her husband, who had previously held the seat, died earlier that year. She retained that seat until 1969. In 1949, Katarina Nutana also stood for Western Maori as an Independent, but she too faced criticism and failed. Other women known to have contested Māori seats include Hinerapa Ropiha, who stood for Southern Maori in 1957, and Whina Cooper, who stood for Northern Maori in 1963. In 1967, Whetū Tirikātene was elected member of Parliament for Southern Maori and retained the seat for 26 years. Like Iriaka Rātana, she too followed a family tradition.

Sandra Lee, a candidate for The Alliance, won the Auckland Central seat in 1993. She was the first Māori woman to hold a general seat in New Zealand. Following Sandra, came Dame Georgina te Heuheu, from 1996 to 2011, of the Tūwharetoa rangatira line, te Heuheu. She became a Cabinet Minister. In Parliament from 1999 to 2007 was the first transsexual MP, Georgina Beyer, ex-Mayor of Carterton, who won the Wairarapa seat; from 1996 to 2014, Dame Tariana Turia, the founder of Whānau Ora policy and founder of the Māori Party; from 2008 to 2017, the Hon Hekia Parata, who was the first Māori woman Minister of Education; and from 2005 to the present day, the Hon Paula Bennett has been a member of Parliament for National, and, in 2016, she became the first Māori woman Deputy Prime Minister and deputy leader of the National Party.

That is a brief rendition of the many Māori women that have come before us. These are but a few of our Māori woman heroines. There are many others of us who continue to fight the good fight in so many ways, as we continue to shape the future pathway for all women. I’m going to conclude my speech right now—because I know I’m running out of time—with these salient words from an amazing woman by the name of Helen Reddy:

I am woman, hear me roar

In numbers too big to ignore

And I know too much to go back an’ pretend

‘Cause I’ve heard it all before

And I’ve been down there on the floor

No one’s ever gonna keep me down again

Oh yes, I am wise

But it’s wisdom born of pain

Yes, I’ve paid the price

But look how much I gained

If I have to, I can do anything

I am strong

(Strong)

I am invincible

(Invincible)

I am woman

He waka eke noa—we’re all in this together. Kia ora, tēnā koutou.

E Te Māngai o Te Whare, tēnā koe. E nga mema o Te Whare, tēnā tātou. I am really pleased to take a call in this acknowledgment of the 125th anniversary of women’s suffrage. As the first women to hold the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti seat, formerly known as Eastern Maori, it is indeed my honour to take a call in this important debate. Can I acknowledge Kate Sheppard, Meri Te Tai Mangakahia, and the many other women who sought change, who sought participation, who sought equality, and who sought justice in democratic Aotearoa New Zealand.

In my contribution, I want to talk about the great women whose shoulders I stand upon. Whatungarongaro he tangata, toitū te whenua. As people disappear, land remains. It is land and authority that the women I’m about to speak to fought gallantly for, for 30 if not 40 years before the signing of the suffrage movement petition in 1893—people like Akeniwa Pātoka Rātima Rerepukapuka Tomoana, the wife of the famous Ngāti Kahungunu chief Hēnare Tomoana. In his rendition in the Native Land Court in 1883, he says, “Through the courage of my wife Ākenehi … the lands have been retained …”.

Then we go to Arahia Te Nahu of Ngāi Te Rangi Konake, who was quoted as saying, “I know this land. I have rights of ancestry, occupation and cultivation; ancestry through Honomōkai, occupation through Te Whatu-i-Āpiti, cultivation through Te Hāpuku, and Te Moananui.” She said this in the Native Land Court in 18 May 1899. Then there’s Horiana Te Wharepū of Ngāti Kurukuru, who also spoke at the hui wāhine held at Te Haukē in 1895 who said, at this hui—she spoke on the motion of selling lands and, in the vote at that hui where the Māori women unanimously voted, Horiana called these sales of land “the greatest disaster to touch us.”

Then there’s Mārata Te Heuheu, also known as Mārata Te Hiria of Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who was actively involved in women’s institutions—the temperance movement, the Land Court issues—in both Heretaunga and Ngāti Tūwharetoa, who formed and established Ngā Komiti Wāhine, which in 1895 had 35,000 members associated with it. Among these women were Akenehi Tomoana, Pukepuke Tangiora, Horiana Tiakitai, Niwa-ki-te-rangi, and Meri Mangakahia.

Ngā Komiti Wāhine was formed as a response to increasing land sales, increasing drunkenness, and the declining health of Māori families while women, as landowners, wanted simply the right to vote. Then Pukepuke Tangiora, who encouraged women at the hui at Te Haukē by saying “Other women have chastised the men for their failure to bring about the cessation of land sales; let us, the women share our thoughts about these issues.”

There is another whakataukī that goes “ka pū te ruha, ka hao te rangatahi”, which means as the old net weathers, the others remain. This whakataukī talks about succession. I want to talk about women like Dame Whina Cooper, who in 1975 led the land marches to Parliament here to say that not an acre more should be taken away from what was already a dwindling amount of Māori land, and, of course, the famous Eva Rickard, who fought gallantly for the return of the Raglan golf course for her people.

Then there’s this last whakataukī: “Ehara taku toa he takitahi, he toa takitini”, which means my success is not bestowed on me alone; it’s not individual success, but success of the collective. I want to acknowledge the fine women MPs in this House, on both sides of the House, who bring class, who bring strength, who bring wisdom to the debates that we hear in this House.

I honestly hope that that wisdom, that strength, and that passion for the issues that they represent continue as we forge ahead. There is much work to do, and I am proud to be woman MP No. 121, 120 years after the signing of the suffragette movement petition. I commend this motion to the House.

Motion agreed to.