In March the NCWNZ Safety, Health and Wellbeing Action Hub led the development of a NCWNZ submission to Manatū Hauora | Ministry of Health on New Zealand's first ever Women's Health Strategy. The Women's Health Strategy is a part of the Pae Ora (Health Futures) Act 2022 – the legislation for the country's new public health system.

NCWNZ branches and individual members made considered and informative responses to the Action Item and there was clear agreement on key points and priorities which were reflected in the submission.

Our submission emphasised the need for "early evidence of its [the Strategy's] impact, seen in real change for all women." We connected this inaugural Women's Health Strategy in New Zealand to international obligations, especially, New Zealand's commitment to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Again Women (CEDAW).

by Dr Anne Else, MNZM

Thousands of New Zealanders have had their lives profoundly affected by adoption. I am one of them: I was adopted at birth in 1945.

The book I needed to read about adoption did not exist. So, in 1991 I published A Question of Adoption: Closed Stranger Adoption in New Zealand 1944–1974. This has now been completely updated, expanded, and republished online as a new e-book by Bridget Williams Books.

How young, legally, is an adult in New Zealand? In general, the law states that a person does not attain "full age" until reaching the age of 20 years. However, this question has a different answer in the law depending on the context. Here are some examples of different legal ages for adult responsibilities:

How old is old enough to vote? It seems that the question will be debated by Parliament some time this year.

This responds to a declaration by the Supreme Court [the Court] in November 2022. The Court granted a declaration that the provisions of the Electoral Act 1993 and the Local Electoral Act 2001, both of which provide for a minimum voting age of 18 years, are inconsistent with the right set out in section 19 of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990 (BoRA) to be free from discrimination on the basis of age. It held that these inconsistencies had not been justified in terms of section 5 of BoRA. The action was taken through the courts by the Make It 16 group which has conducted a long campaign to lower the voting age. So, what does this mean and what happens next?

The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) has reported that, for the first time ever, there are women in national legislatures in every single country on Earth. You can download the report "Women in parliament in 2022: The year in review" from here: https://www.ipu.org/resources/publications/reports/2023-03/women-in-parliament-2022.

Women reached new milestones in parliamentary representation around the globe, and the context for women’s political leadership continued to expand. Gender issues and women’s rights shaped voter behaviour and electoral outcomes in countries from Brazil to Hungary and from Australia to the United States of America.

Ambassador Jane Connolly

Three of our members -- Emma Catteau (NCWNZ Board administrator), Amy Rice and Parminder Kaur from Wellington Branch -- participated in the annual Summer School organised by the Embassy of Ireland taking place in Wellington on the 10th and 11th of February 2023.

To celebrate both Brigid’s Day, Ireland’s celebration of the creativity and influence of women and girls, and the 130th anniversary of women being granted the right to vote in Aotearoa New Zealand, the Summer School was focused “Agents of Change: A Reflection on the Legacy, Influence, and Role of Women and Girls”.

International Women’s Day (IWD) 2023 – officially celebrated on Wednesday 8 March – is fast approaching and NCWNZ has your celebrations covered!

Keep an eye out across our NCWNZ social media channels, where we will run our IWD 2023 campaign. Our theme this year is all about supporting women to #AccessEquality in all its forms. 

The NCWNZ Manawatu branch ended their February meeting with a discussion: ‘Should 16-year olds have the right to vote?’ It was led by a local Year 13 prefect Sjaan Toomey Jakobs, who skilfully managed the interactions.

The Dunedin Branch notes with sadness the passing of our Life Member, Patricia "Pat" Mark QSO JP, earlier this month. Patricia, Lady Mark née Davie died on 7 February 2023 at 91 years of age. Pat was a member of the National Council of Women of New Zealand (NCWNZ) from 1967-2007 and was made a Life Member of NCWNZ Dunedin in 2007. She was also a Justice of the Peace and was awarded a Queen’s Service Order (QSO) for services to the community in 2000.

Her many friends in our branch feel the loss of such an energetic, sincere and dear friend. This photo at right, courtesy of Correen Rodger, was taken in 2005 when Pat received a Long Service award from the Branch. 

She worked hard for our organisation and we do appreciate her input which we honoured with a Life Membership in 2007. She served NCW as a delegate from Graduate Women Otago from 1979 to 2007. She worked hard on many activities and always led by example.

This year starts with the promise of moving onwards. It may not be any easier than past years, but as a country we are moving to a post-COVID phase, and as an organisation we are moving to a phase of embedding the new constitution that we spent so much time thinking about in the last two years. We will continue to work both internally and externally, as we progress our vision of a gender equal Aotearoa New Zealand.

This year, our International Women’s Day (IWD) theme will be “Access Equality,” tying in with the general theme of #embraceequality – look out for social media from our Comms team. We are grateful for MSD Te Korowai Whetū Social Cohesion funding to help us amplify the impact of IWD events in Auckland, Wellington and Christchurch, and we know that other events are being planned around ngā motu/the island. The NCWNZ Communications team have compiled a list of IWD events on our website (https://www.ncwnz.org.nz/iwd2023) and you can email them at [email protected] if you would like to add your event. Remember to send your stories after the events to [email protected], with photos, so we can celebrate in the next edition of The Circular.