The National Council of Women of New Zealand, Te Kaunihera Wāhine o Aotearoa, is today releasing the results of questions posed to political parties on gender equity and women’s issues.

“The survey identifies issues of importance to New Zealand women and enables voters to compare the positions stated by parties on those issues ,” Dr Suzanne Manning, President of NCWNZ, said today.

The National, Labour, Green, ACT and Opportunities (TOP) parties responded to the survey, while the Māori, New Zealand First and Vision New Zealand parties did not provide answers before the deadline.

“This survey is an important way to call attention to actions our political parties intend to take on these key topics for women. Our next government could have significant influence on the quality of life that New Zealand women will experience for years to come,” Dr Manning said.

The survey found that most political parties that responded support the continuation of the Ministry for Women and of having a Minister for Women. Only the ACT party intends to remove them. Most parties are also committed to implementing and funding a Women’s Health strategy, although the National party has committed only to ‘health outcomes for women.’ 

All political parties who responded to the survey say they are committed to sharing paid parental leave with fathers and partners, but only the Labour, Green and Opportunities parties are committed to funding paid parental leave for fathers and partners. 

Mandatory public reporting of gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps is supported by the Green, Labour and Opportunities parties. The Act party opposes this, and the National party has yet to decide whether to extend pay gap reporting to the private sector.

The Greens and Labour support the establishment of an agency with regulatory powers to hold online platforms to account for online harm and abuse. ACT opposes this, while National and TOP don’t have a policy on this.

When asked about mandatory age-appropriate, accessible consent education in all schools, only the Green party indicated support for this, while National, Labour, ACT and TOP say this should be left up to schools to decide.

“There’s a wide range of nuance and detail in the answers to our survey, so we would encourage anyone who is interested to read the full text to understand the impact that political parties could have on women’s lives,” Dr Manning said.

To learn more, download the full list of survey responses from political parties.

For more information, or to interview Dr Suzanne Manning please contact 022 655 6512 or email us.