Shedding ‘honky males in suits’
To say gender equality at the Cabinet table can’t be achieved at the expense of merit, is to say there aren’t enough capable women on the Government benches.
The problem for Prime Minister John Key, however, is that in the Government he leads, there aren’t.
He’s mulling his options as Cabinet requires a reshuffle, likely to happen in the new year.
Whatever its configuration, the A-team that National takes to next year’s election will predominantly be made up of middle-aged white men.
That’s certainly not to say Cabinet’s ranks don’t feature a formidable set of strong and very capable women; including Paula Bennett, Amy Adams, Anne Tolley, Judith Collins and Maggie Barry.
But it is to say that all the female National MPs probably deserving of one of the 27 Cabinet positions are already there.
Barry, along with Jo Goodhew and Nicky Wagner, may benefit from promotions of varying degrees.
Of those available to draw into the fold,: Mt Roskill candidate Parmjeet Parmar and Jacqui Dean have barely made ripples during their respective three-year and 11-year tenures in Parliament.
Parmar - who may well fancy her chances - has been witnessed scurrying away with her head down when asked by Press Gallery journalists in Parliament’s corridor if she would be running for Mt Roskill.
It’s difficult to see her fronting a ministerial portfolio with any more authority than Women’s Affairs Minister Louise Upston, and she should be worried about her place in Cabinet.
Meanwhile, most New Zealanders would likely be unaware four National MPs exist, who go by the names of Barbara Kuriger, Sarah Dowie, Joanne Hayes and Maureen Pugh.
Melissa Lee, who has been an MP since 2008, has barely made headlines except to court controversy over taxpayer funds given to her production company and to suggest South Auckland was full of criminals.
The reshuffle, though typical of a Key Government a year out from the election, has partly been precipitated by the loss of two key figures - unfortunately, both highly capable women.
In Nikki Kaye’s case, that’s not necessarily permanent, as she takes time off to focus on her treatment following a shock breast cancer diagnosis.
Key’s reshuffle might have been before the end of this year, were he not being careful to give her all the space and time she needed to focus on getting well.
One has to assume Key is being kept in the loop on that front, but it’s understood even her Cabinet colleagues know very little at this stage.
Key will also have a decision to make over whether to keep Education Minister Hekia Parata in her portfolio, until she retires from politics at the election.
It’s difficult to see any practical sense in doing that. However, keeping one of the few women, and Maori ministers, front and centre during the campaign may prove to make political sense when options are limited.
The female vote is a constituency National has performed well under Key - though it’s by no means a given, and one they have to work to hold.
As senior Minister Murray McCully now famously put it in a 2004 internal e-mail to party strategists: ‘‘We do look like a bunch of conservative, honky males in suits.’’
Astute as ever, he was entirely correct and the party will be no less self-aware this time around.
It should be pointed out National’s party list from 2014 features only one other female candidate who didn’t make it into Parliament.
Misa Fia Turner contested for National in Mangere. Among the few headlines she garnered was controversy over whether she had deceptively claimed the chiefly title of Misa.
Rejuvenation at next year’s election is the only solution - that doesn’t make Key’s decisions any easier now.