Posts in “Politics” category

Kōrero with Margaret Mutu

It was an evening of humour and song when broadcaster Moana Maniapoto (Ngāti Tūwharetoa, Tūhourangi, Ngāti Pikiao) warmly interviewed Professor Margaret Mutu (Ngāti Kahu, Te Rarawa, Ngāti Whātua) at the Samoa House in late March. If you missed out on our sold out event, the full video is below! The upbeat feeling was welcome and ...

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Gender Gap Facts 2024

Did you know that nearly half of all public service chief executives were women in 2022, twice the proportion in 2012? This is one of the 32 facts in our just-updated at-a-glance, quick-reference “Gender Gap Facts”. This brief guide offers a handful of illustrative snapshots (from the most recent research and statistics available) about gender ...

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Posted: January 23, 2024Categories: , , , ,

Things you can do right now to contain this cartoon villain government

(Including things inspired by the Auckland Women Centre’s wāhine Māori kōrero)   Alarmed about the new government? Good. Alarm is an appropriate response to these real-life cartoon villains, so contemptible, craven and dangerous. A friend stresses what the immediate anti-Tiriti, anti-reo, anti-human rights signals are doing: “Māori in public service are deeply concerned. There are ...

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Posted: December 13, 2023Categories: , ,

Kōrero with Ngahuia Te Awekotuku: Turning Worry into Action

The legendary activist and scholar Ngahuia Te Awekotuku (Te Arawa, Tūhoe, Ngāpuhi and Waikato) offered deep concern about the new government – but also hope about collective opposition to their “rubbish” agenda – in her warm, candid online kōrero with Stacey Morrison. This kōrero video has been lightly edited for clarity. We live in interesting times. Last ...

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Posted: December 13, 2023Categories: , , , , , ,

Safe or scorned – which Auckland mayoralty will be best for women?

Probably the only opinion piece you’ll find on Auckland’s current local elections not written by a white man It doesn’t get the attention it deserves but local government is vital to making the lives of women safer and easier. Good lighting design makes public spaces safer – and bus routes linking schools to local shops ...

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Posted: September 19, 2022Category:

Paid Paternal Leave: One simple trick to enhance gender equity

While we celebrate 26 weeks of paid parental leave (PPL) since July 2020, New Zealand is still lagging behind international norms and best practice when it comes to enabling parents to spend time with their babies. This is the case particularly for non-birthing parents (the Dads in most Mum-Dad families) and secondary caregiving parents in ...

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Posted: February 21, 2022Categories: , , ,

Delta lockdown: Worse than the first for women and families in Tāmaki Makaurau

This time around, in spite of huge community efforts, need is greater, stress is higher and support is harder to find. For many, it will take a long time to recover. It didn’t have to be this way. Tania Kingi has worked in the disability sector for almost 40 years yet she told The Spinoff ...

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Posted: October 6, 2021Categories: ,

Minister for Women Jan Tinetti gets to work

Te Wāhi Wāhine o Tāmaki Makaurau/ Auckland Women’s Centre met with Minister for Women Jan Tinetti in May, and came away very impressed. It was clear Jan understands why a gendered analysis of family and sexual violence is important, and during the meeting, she listened to our concerns intently. Jan is Pākehā, a breast cancer ...

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Posted: July 20, 2021Categories: ,

Towards a feminist budget

If we stopped spending on the military, what could we achieve instead? On International Women’s Day this year the Aotearoa section of Women’s International League for Peace & Freedom (WILPF) challenged government military expenditure. WILPF maintains that “well-resourced civilian agencies are better suited to perform the military’s current roles”, for example, disaster response, search and ...

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Posted: June 8, 2021Categories: ,

Are policy makers paying any attention to women’s needs?

The Ministry for Business, Innovation and Employment’s attempt to combat modern slavery in New Zealand without considering forced prostitution is yet more evidence the Government urgently needs to mandate the use of a gender policy tool for all agencies, says Te Wāhi Wāhine o Tāmaki Makaurau manager Leonie Morris. “It’s outrageous that MBIE has messed ...

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Posted: March 21, 2021Categories: ,