Minister urges more women to stand
Half of the elected members on councils and community boards should be women, according to Minister for Women Julie Anne Genter.
‘‘Councils and local boards, community boards, should look like the communities that they represent,’’ Genter said on Tuesday after a meeting at Nelson. ‘‘Women are more than 50 per cent of the population, it would make sense if they were around or closer to 50 per cent of the local government representatives.’’
Genter’s comments came after she spoke to more than 60 people – mainly women – at a gathering in Stoke that was organised as part of a push to get women to stand for the Nelson city and Tasman district councils in the upcoming local body elections.
She told the crowd that diversity brought ‘‘many benefits to decision making and I strongly believe that for democracy to function, we need to have a broad spectrum of voices represented at the table’’.
‘‘Sadly, currently, in Nelson and Tasman we don’t have that broad spectrum,’’ Genter said.
A total of 23 per cent of the elected representatives on the Nelson council are women while in Tasman district, they account for just 21 per cent.
‘‘Clearly, we can see from these numbers that women are still under-represented at that local government level,’’ Genter said.
After the meeting, the Minister said she believed the environment and electoral system did not encourage women to stand. ‘‘If you look at a council and you see it’s mainly men, you’re probably less likely to think that you should stand.’’
She told the crowd that although she was passionate and ‘‘wanted to be part of the solution, when I looked at politicians where I grew up in the United States, I didn’t see anyone who looked like me so I thought: ‘Ugh, politicians, why would I want to be one of those’’’.
‘‘Here in New Zealand things are getting better, in part because we have MMP [Mixed Member Proportional] at a central government level,’’ Genter said. ‘‘We’re seeing a huge increase in the number of women in Parliament, number of Ma¯ ori in Parliament, Pasifika – people from a whole range of diverse backgrounds.’’
MMP had led to more diversity ‘‘and I think, better decision making’’.
Genter urged the members of the crowd to stand for election or support those who did.
‘‘It’s not just women, we need all types of diversity,’’ she said. ‘‘I would like to see more diversity of age, diversity of ethnicity and background ... people who are differently able.’’
Three former councillors – Hilary Mitchell, Gail Collingwood and Elaine Henry – are members of the group that organised the meeting.
Collingwood, who was a Nelson city councillor from 1995 to 2013, said she did not have a definitive answer for why more women did not stand for office.
‘‘Maybe, it’s a lack of knowledge about how councils work. Perhaps because of the historical nature [of councils] ... women still feel it isn’t their role.’’
Candidate nominations for the 2019 local body elections open on July 19. They are due to close on August 16 with polling day scheduled for October 12.