Obituaries — Dame Catherine Tizard

I move, That the House express its sympathy and condolences to the family of Dame Catherine Tizard, and pay tribute to the outstanding contribution she made to this country.

The Hon Dame Catherine Tizard, known to all as Dame Cath, died in Auckland on 31 October, at the age of 90. It was with great sadness that I heard of Dame Cath’s death. She was a wonderful role model of leadership and determination, combined with a down-to-earth approach and an irrepressible sense of humour.

In 1971, Dame Cath was working as a senior tutor in zoology at Auckland University, while raising four children. At a time when it was still far from common for women to combine a career with running a family, let alone enter political life as well, Dame Cath took her first step into public life by standing in the Auckland City Council election. She was duly elected and remained a city councillor for 12 years while continuing to work for the university. Many will also remember her as a regular panel member on the hugely popular TV show Beauty and the Beast, from 1976 to 1985.

Dame Cath was elected Mayor of Auckland in 1983, the first woman to hold that position. The following year, she received the first of her four damehoods. Dame Cath remained mayor until 1990, during which she led two challenging and significant projects for Auckland: the development of Aotea Centre and securing the hosting of the Commonwealth Games in 1990.

Dame Cath had only just been re-elected for her third term as Mayor of Auckland when she was offered the role of Governor-General. She was only the third woman in the Commonwealth to be appointed Governor-General, of course the first in New Zealand. It was particularly significant that she was in the role when New Zealand commemorated the centenary of women’s suffrage in 1993.

Dame Cath was a popular Governor-General and strived to make both the role of Governor-General and Government House more accessible to New Zealanders. She instituted the first open day, allowing public access to the house and grounds. She gently dismantled some of the pomp that surrounded her role, such as discouraging curtseying and bowing to the Governor-General. She carried out her formal and ceremonial duties with serious and considered attention, and her community duties with a sense of fun and a genuine wish to engage with a diverse range of New Zealanders.

For those of us privileged enough to have known Dame Cath, or to at least have had encounters with her, they were memorable. She was wise, witty, and generous. She was a role model when the world and women needed one. She’s one of the people that normalised women in leadership in Aotearoa and we owe her much for that.

The thoughts of the Government are with Dame Cath’s family. They sacrificed much on behalf of all of us and we thank them. It is usual, of course, in New Zealand for the service of a former Governor-General to be honoured with a State funeral. At Dame Cath’s request, she will have a private funeral, and we will publicly celebrate her life with a different event that will reflect her personal wishes and those of her family.

We, of course, will announce details of that at the appropriate time. Until then, I know this House’s thoughts are with Dame Cath’s family. Rest in peace.

The question is that the motion be agreed to.

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I’d like to acknowledge both the contribution and the passing of Dame Cath Tizard. I had the pleasure of meeting Dame Cath many times, often at civic events or events supporting the arts, and she was often in the presence of her daughter, former member of Parliament Judith Tizard.

Dame Cath was a very loyal and firm Labour supporter. She came from a part of the Waikato known as Whataroa and she went to Matamata College, as did I, but, obviously, in different years. She and I would often discuss matters such as politics in Matamata. We were both young—well, obviously, not at the same time—girls who went to college and we were probably the only ones from Labour homes in our classes, so I think she always found that quite amusing that I ended up being, as she often called it, a Tory. It’s not a term I normally use, but I’ll give her that one, just once.

She was a very great friend of former Prime Minister Helen Clark. Helen Clark has been very fulsome in her praise of the mentorship and support that she got from Dame Cath when Helen was at university, and I think it’s a great indication of her true friendship to people that she remained a close friend for many years.

My sincere condolences and those of the New Zealand National Party go to Dame Cath’s family and friends. I was thinking just before that she was not only a trailblazer, as we like to say, both as Mayor of Auckland and as Governor-General, but she was also someone who liked to see other women achieve, no matter what their political stripes, and I think that that’s one of those great assets that she had—that she could talk with anybody about anything and she was always interested in other people. May she rest in peace.

Tēnā koe e te Māngai o te Whare. Tēnā koutou ōku hoa kaimahi. I rise with honour today to speak on behalf of the Green Party to acknowledge the passing of an incredible woman: Dame Catherine Tizard. I also greet everyone. It is a privilege to stand here—my first time back in the House after a few months—to be able to talk to this important occasion of acknowledgment as well. He maimai aroha tēnei.

[This is our expression of affection.]

Dame Tizard devoted herself to public service, both at the community and national level. During her career she broke many glass ceilings, as my colleagues have pointed out, and was a shining light across the motu that our dreams dare not be limited to the status quo. With her campaign for Auckland mayor, Dame Tizard also demonstrated that with determination and patience, one can achieve their goals. While her first tilt at the Auckland City mayoralty in 1980 failed, three years later she successfully became the city’s first female mayor.

But today, along with the many countless achievements, successes, and attributes that we should be acknowledging, I recollected that she was also an honoured patron, and honoured to be the patron of the Glenn Inquiry into domestic violence and child abuse—that was The People’s Blueprint that was announced in 2014. I was the chief panellist on that inquiry, and we launched that here in Wellington in 2014. I had had the privilege of listening firsthand to accounts around the country, and I remember speaking with Dame Cath that night at the dinner, the day before we were due to announce the launch. She said to me that as she was reading through the report and understanding a lot more about the situation of violence in our country and how unacceptable that was to her that she could not always read through the accounts because it was, of course, upsetting to her what people still continue to have to face, but that it made her even more determined to want to lend her contribution in any small or big way to the work of ending family violence and sexual violence in our country. So I thought that was an important attribute to acknowledge her for on this day.

Nō reira, he mihi aroha ki a ia, ki a Dame Cath Tizard. He mihi aroha hoki ki tōna whānau whānui—tōku mihi aroha ki a koutou. Kia ora.

[Therefore, this is a loving tribute to her, to Dame Cath Tizard. It is also an expression of sympathy to her wider family—I send my loving greetings to you. Thank you.]

Thank you, Mr Speaker. I would like to join with other leaders, on behalf of ACT, in paying tribute to Dame Cath Tizard and her great life, and in offering condolences to her family who must be feeling a terrible sense of loss.

Dame Cath Tizard became mayor of our largest city in 1983. That was the year that I was born, and yet even as a small child I was keenly aware of the influence of this giant in New Zealand politics and in public life. The name Dame Cath Tizard was one that was so often heard and you kind of knew, even as a kid, it was something important. The Aotea Centre, the 1990 Commonwealth Games being held in Auckland—these were all things that, even as somebody starting primary school, you knew were important. I think that is just one insight into the size of her influence over New Zealand public affairs.

She was also someone, as others have noted, who was part of a vanguard of women who were first to make it to the top of their professions in New Zealand. To be the first woman to be a mayor of New Zealand’s largest city and, as Governor-General, the first woman to be head of State of the whole country, she was right at the front of that vanguard.

She was also a woman of science, having studied and graduated in zoology; something that I suspect she found quite useful for her role in the chat show Beauty and the Beast. She went on to say that Beauty and the Beast had helped her get prepared for her career in politics; it may well be that her degree in zoology was equally useful for this vocation.

We leave her, as a country, all the better and stronger for having had her in our midst for all of the contributions that she made. On behalf of ACT, I’d like to pay tribute to her great life and to offer our condolence to her family. Thank you, Mr Speaker.

Motion agreed to.