NZ gender equality is ‘shabby’ at global level
We cannot underestimate the marketing power our prime minister brings to the table as she finally got a chance to promote New Zealand tourism and trade internationally.
However, something caught my eye when looking at the intent and ambition of the European free-trade agreement on the Ministry of Foreign Affairs website.
It said the European Union and New Zealand had agreed on ambitious provisions to promote important trade and sustainable development outcomes, including in the areas of climate action, labour rights and gender equality.
Previously the prime minister has talked about climate change being New Zealand’s nuclear-free moment and was recently quoted as saying to the Europeans, ‘‘if not us who?’’ in regards to climate change.
While some could potentially poke holes at our approach to climate change, they would blow a giant chasm in any statement we might make about sustainable development in regards to gender equality. New Zealand’s efforts in that area compared with other Western countries in recent years are lacking and it is being noticed internationally. A report released last week that analysed more than 1000 publicly listed companies across the Asia-Pacific region on 19 gender equality criteria showed shabby results for New Zealand.
It showed that while we may have women in decision-making roles, we do not have the legislation and policy protections for them that other nations do. Especially noted was the absence of mandatory pay gap reporting.
Perhaps Jacinda Ardern would like to take some advice from her Aussie mates while she is across the Tasman, because embarrassingly our overall gender equality score was lower than Australia’s.
This is because so few New Zealand companies release pay gap data and only 18% have published a statement about how they intend to address their gender pay gaps.
The report said while our Government’s strong makeup of women looks good, it does not walk the talk for the rest of the county, especially when we are talking about pay transparency.
While New Zealand is being called out for its poor performance on gender pay issues, the EU has also agreed to work on a proposal for a Pay Transparency Directive, demanding companies with more than 50 employees be required to disclose gender pay gap information.
And now in Australia, the prime minister has to face the fact that their businesses do better than ours on gender equality.
They even have a whole agency focused on gender pay gaps and requirements on business to report.
All is not lost, if New Zealand took simple steps proposed by the MindTheGap campaign to address not only the gender pay gap but the gap for Ma¯ ori, Pasifika and other ethnic groups, we could leap ahead internationally when it comes to diversity and inclusion.
As can be seen by the European free trade agreement, issues such as climate change and action around diversity and inclusion matter when negotiating future deals.
And they matter for our reputation as a country. So while New Zealand is busy announcing it is back on the world stage, it needs to show that it is keeping up to date with what is important internationally, as it risks damaging its reputation. How long before our lack of progress on gender becomes a barrier to trade?