Women's Rights Slip Further In New Zealand

The New Zealand Human Right Commission has just released of their 2010 Census of Women’s Participation, a biennial survey, published today.

It follows the progress, or the lack of it, for women across the corporate and private sectors at governance and management levels in New Zealand.

You may like to read the following blog in conjunction with an earlier blog we posted in March 2010 for International Women’s Day titled - Women’s Rights Slipping Away in New Zealand.

The 2010 Census of Women’s Participation opens with:

Chapter 1 Sex and Power – A Report Card

“The bad news is that in a number of significant areas, women’s participation has stalled and is sliding backwards. Significantly, this is occurring in the state sector which has traditionally been a leader for women’s advancement in public life.
New Zealand made a promise internationally of 50% gender parity in government-appointed bodies by 2010, which has not been met and has now slipped to an 8.5% gap.” read the full census report here

A NZPA press report said “The National Government is failing women” according to Labour MP Sue Moroney.

“It says women comprise 32 percent of MPs, 30 percent of Cabinet, 72 percent of teachers and 47 percent of school principals.
There are only three female editors out of the 26 daily newspapers, while 26 percent of the country’s judges are women, as are 29 percent of the New Zealand Police force.
Although 59 percent of the workers in public service are women, only six out of 34 public service departments have a woman chief executive.
The report identifies a 15.4 percent gender pay gap in the public service, which is greater than the total labour force gender pay gap of 13 per cent.
Equal Opportunities Commissioner Judy McGregor said in some areas women’s participation had stalled and was sliding backwards. read the full report here

Here are some press releases that have already been issued today by interested parties:

Pay and Employment Equity Coalition

The findings from the Biennial Census of Women’s Participation show that gender pay issues are moving in the wrong direction in the public sector, said Pay and Employment Equity Coalition Spokesperson Angela McLeod today. “The Human Rights Commission is doing a good job monitoring the gap but is working in a vacuum caused by government inaction,” she said.
There is clear evidence of serious slippage in the state sector with 24 public service departments having gender pay gaps greater than the total labour force and the highest reported one being 39 per cent. “This is appalling,” said McLeod. “The state sector is vitally important for leading the way in improving gender equity. And so it should be given more than half its workforce are women.”
“The Government’s dismantling of the Pay and Employment Unit has derailed progress and is likely to have contributed to these results. We were seeing some good progress being made in the state sector. The effects of government abandoning this issue are now coming home to roost.”
“Minister Pansy Wong may claim she is taking action on gender equity but the limited amounts of tinkering she is overseeing are not effective in improving the gender equity for the three-quarters of a million women now in the New Zealand workforce. They have no real plan for ensuring that women get the same rewards and workplace conditions as men,” said McLeod.
“This census report is very comprehensive and provides valuable and specific information but it has to be a spur to action,” said McLeod. “The Minister needs to meet with pay equity experts, trade union leaders and public and private sector employers to develop a plan of meaningful action to improve gender equity and reduce the gender pay gap.”
“We are ready and willing – is she?”

New Zealand Nurses Organisation:

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), as a professional organisation and trade union with a 95 percent women membership, is appalled at the deterioration in female participation in governance, professional and public life, as revealed in a Human Rights Commission report released today.
The 2010 Census of Women’s Participation shows that gains made in past decades are being eroded and it shows that women in the public service earn 15.4 percent less than men for doing the same or a similar job.
“The census shows that unless the government takes a very active role in gender equity issues, women’s position in the workforce deteriorates. This Government disbanded the Labour Department’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit and the results in this report indicate that decision has had a negative impact on working women’s rights,” NZNO president Nano Tunnicliff said.
“Nurses working in district health boards (DHBs) have had to fight to boost their pay rates to those of comparable professions and they have to remain vigilant to maintain that equity. Many nurses and health workers in other areas of the health system still do not have these pay rates. Nurses know that unless there is a real commitment at government level to ensure equity for working women, it doesn’t happen,” Tunnicliff said.
These equity issues are even more acute for Māori women workers, Te Runanga o Aotearoa NZNO kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said. “We have been campaigning for years for nurses and health workers in Māori and iwi health providers to get the same pay as nurses and health workers in DHBs. We still haven’t achieved that.”
Tunnicliff and Nuku believe that if this Government is genuinely committed to pay and employment equity for all women, it will develop a comprehensive plan dedicated to achieving that goal.

New Zealand Educational Institute

A new report showing women losing ground in terms of pay and employment equity should shame the government into action, says the education sector union NZEI Te Riu Roa.
The Census of Women’s Participation by the Human Rights Commission shows that women’s participation in governance, professional and public life has slipped. It also shows that women in the public sector are paid 15% less than men for doing the same of similar work.
NZEI says the figures are particularly disheartening as the Government has clear evidence of pay inequity for thousands of education workers, yet refuses to do anything about it.
A pay investigation involving around 800 Ministry of Education support workers who work with special needs children, found they are significantly underpaid when compared to male workers in other sectors who have similar skills levels and responsibilities.
A separate report of the Pay Equity Review of the Compulsory Schooling Sector found that across all occupational groups in schools, there were areas where women were not being treated fairly or were being discriminated against in terms of pay, career advancement and value of their work.
NZEI National Secretary Paul Goulter says “it is astonishing that in 2010 New Zealand finds itself in a position where equality for women in the workplace is actually slipping rather than improving and the responsibility lies squarely with the Government.”
The National-led government has undone a lot of the progress made by scrapping the pay and employment equity unit and halting all further pay and employment investigations in the public sector.
The Human Rights Commission Report says New Zealand is unlikely to meet its international obligations to have pay parity in the public sector by the end of the year.
“Failing to address pay and employment equity marginalises women and shuts them out of the economic recovery. The government should be ashamed,” says Mr Goulter.

Today's posts - click here

More Knives In NZ Schools

What is it with knives in NZ schools right now? there’s been a veritable rash of knife incidents over the last few weeks.

A few days ago we wrote about how the village was failing the child when kids used violence  to sort out their differences, with some parents even scheduling fights for their daughters  in Northland and fights being shown on YouTube.

School violence is becoming ‘family business’ in New Zealand and it’s time to put a stop to it, before anyone else gets hurt…or worse.  777 teachers were assaulted at work during 2008-2009 and there were 1167 incidents of violence, including 51 grievous assaults last year across all educational institutions, including 14 of stabbing and cutting with a weapon. (Statistics NZ)

Schools in New Zealand have open campuses at present and anyone is able to walk into most school grounds un-challenged.

Background

“A knife has been brandished at a school in Hamilton. Police were called to Fairfield College at just after 11am and Senior Sergeant Greg Dunn says enquiries so far, suggest a 26-year-old man went to the school after his younger brother came home saying he was being threatened.
Senior Sergeant Dunn says when the man confronted students, a larger group converged and he pulled a knife. The man then got back into the car and drove off.
The two brothers were tracked to a nearby house and are currently being interviewed by police. The 26-year-old is likely to face charges.”

It is the third incident involving a knife at a NZ school this month, and the second in Hamilton: A 15-year-old girl from Hamilton Girls’ High School was charged with assault and threatening to kill and teacher Steve Hose was stabbed in the back and shoulder by a student at Te Puke High School, Bay of Plenty.

'Safe New Zealand' is a great place to raise kids. Yeah, right.

Read also a blog from earlier today:  NZ Teachers Facing More Abuse

Today's posts - click here

Kaitaia’s Kids’ Drunken Night Of Rampage. Mob Rule

Gisborne

 Welcome to Kaitaia

Residents of the small Northland town of Kaitaia suffered $10,000 in damages after a ‘group’ of  10 tanked up kids rampaged through the town for three and a hlaf hours on Monday night last week.

Three and a half hours, where were the police all that time?

The Northern Advocate said:

“It is alleged the group involved in last week’s incident comprised 10 youths led by  a 16-year-old girl and included others aged 12, 13, 14 and 15.
Police have identified eight of the 10 suspected. Five are to appear in the Kaitaia Youth Court next month charged with burglary, receiving and shoplifting. Three others have been referred to the police Youth Aid section for their involvement.  Police are working to identify the other two.
Business owner Jack Rogers, of Rogers  & Rogers plumbing, said the alcohol-fuelled incident had left him with a $2600 repair bill for the window and another $1000 damage to items in the shop…
…Kaitaia police Detective Sergeant Trevor Beatson said the drama began about 7pm last Monday when the group targeted licensed premises. They allegedly drank the stolen alcohol and returned to the main street about 10.30pm and continued their trail of destruction until 2am the following day.
At one hotel they stole the entire “top shelf” and cleared out about 40 bottles of spirits, police said. They also made off with nearly 90 bottles of beer and 80 bottles of mixers.
“Where were the parents of these young people, and what were they thinking letting their  girls into town after 10pm on a Monday night?” Mr Beatson said.”

Good question, but where were the police?

“There is a lot of concern in our community about this type of offending. The businesses who were targeted have expressed their outrage to police, at the clear lack of parental control and ability of parents to look after their children.”
Mr Beatson said the community was angry about the damage and their stolen property, but were mostly angry at parents who failed to control their children…”

The real problem is that the adults are incapable of controlling themselves.

Kaitaia has already got a terrible reputation as a place not be once the sun starts to set.
It was a group of adults that hurled racist abuse and bottles at a family of Swiss tourists taking a short stroll into town on evening.  The editor of the Northland Age said it was time the streets were cleaned up:

“This is not the first time that something approaching mob rule has been experienced in Kaitaia. Some years ago an English visitor, a tank commander no less, abandoned a walk through the town’s streets on a summer’s evening after encountering numbers of young people whose demeanour was so threatening as to raise questions, in his mind at least, regarding his safety.

It is time the streets were cleaned up. “

Some of the locals live in fear and have been forced to leave the town. A  reader contacted the Northern Age to say she had been the subject of racial abuse from teenagers in Matthews Road whilst driving her two young grandchildren along the road. A gang of youths had battered her car and hurled insults. She reported the incident to the police but had heard nothing back:

“The woman added that she had thought Kaitaia was a “pretty threatening place” when she arrived in the town 13 years ago, but had now reached the point where she was encouraging her daughter and son-in-law to take their family and leave.“I’m not doing that just because of this incident, but because I don’t think this is going to be a good place to live,” she said.
The change that she believed had taken place over the last 13 years, she added, was that the racist attitudes that had probably always existed were now being openly displayed.”

In November a 70 year old grandmother was beaten to death in her Kaitaia home by an intruder. Before her death Barbara Julian had told her niece that she was thinking about leaving town because people in the street had been frightening her.
The sad truth is that Kaitaia suffers from the same problems that afflict many New Zealand’s socially and economically deprived communities, there are ‘Kaitaias’ all over New Zealand.
Take for example Gisborne, another small town on the mid-east coast of the North Island.  You may wish to read our post from 14 April 2010 “Armed Robbery and Drugs, 80% or more smoke weed in Gisborne” and read some of the comments readers made to the Gisborne Herald about their town’s drug problem:

Marijuana and the lost generation
“I am writing with regard to the recent drug bust in Gisborne. I know that probably 80 percent (or more)of the town smoke weed, or think there is nothing wrong with it.
However, you just have to look around to see the effects of the generational abuse of marijuana and other drugs around our area.

Dilapidated homes, no one caring enough to do anything, the kids roaming around with no parents who give a damn, generations of welfare recipients, crime at all levels, car accidents, general apathy relating to just about everything.
The mental health issues, people who fly into rages and can’t handle everyday reality because of constantly being stoned. Kids at school stoned, or not at school at all.

The experience of taking my child to a public toilet where before us a school kid (in uniform) had been inside getting stoned.
Going to town with my young children and walking past carloads of people parked up smoking weed.

The young mother all of 17-years-old in a store so stoned she could barely speak with her passed out baby in her arms . . . no doubt they had just been ‘toking’ in the car, too!

I don’t personally know the people involved in the recent drugs bust no, but I expect they had children who would have been exposed to it. Their drugs would be sold to people who are already dependent, or maybe young people just starting out. Home detention is a joke. Drug dealing is not OK, no matter how many times people try to justify it!

It’s about time people stood up and realised it, although I do know that in Gizzy it is a big call. I know that we have other “evils” such as alcohol and tobacco, too, but I personally think that marijuana is one of our biggest problems by far, especially on the coast.“

another reader added:

“Drug problem being handed down
Well spoken “Angry” regarding marijuana and the lost generation, The Gisborne Herald, March 24.
Most people have absolutely no idea just how much drugs in all forms are affecting a large percentage of our people right here in Gisborne.
If you know what to look for (most don’t) you will certainly see affected people all over the place, in the city, in supermarkets and at gas stations etc. As stated by “Angry” carloads sitting around smoking cannabis and “P” in public.
The saddest thing about this is that this behaviour is being handed down to children big-time.
If a couple have this problem then their four to six children will also and so to their children which collectively add up to about 24 persons and this has been going on for generations.
The money that is able to be made from drugs supports a large number of people in many ways right here in Gisborne.
The people I am talking about number in the hundreds and are so deep in the lifestyle that it is too late for them.
Far too much cheek-turning is going on and if this social tolerance continues, well who knows where it will end up?
But have a look at the lifestyles of the people who live in the ‘Bronx’ because that’s where it’s heading for sure.
Drugs, then large unemployment because of drug habits, followed by violence, along with all forms of abuse and family crises.
That’s where it’s headed.”

But that is just two towns out of the whole of the country! you say, you can’t judge a whole country by that.

But there are too many other places with the same problem for the pattern to ignored.

Places like Huntly, dogged by rampant crime. The small towns of Hawke’s Bay – Napier, Flaxmere and Hastings where in the latter a gang of kids smashed their way through the CBD at 4am. Small villages like Mapua where a brawl over the Easter weekend involving 30 people in the early hours of the morning prompted residents to call for a greater police presence.

There are no signs of it abating either, the once cohesive small communities that used to be the backbone of  New Zealand are rapidly falling apart, crime and disorder are out of control, drug and alcohol abuse are rife and the country lacks the resources to stop it.

Read also links sent by a reader:
Murupara - NZ's wild frontier towns populated with gangsters and bored hoodlums loitering on the streets.

Parents act over school plagued by violence -  Parents have been forced to take their children's education into their own hands at Rangitahi College, Murupara. The school is plagued by drug use, violence and the abuse of teachers and students.

Teachers face rise in class violence (2003) - Education Ministry figures  showed 395 stand-downs last year (2002) for attacks on teachers..."teenagers are more prepared to stand up for their rights these days."

Hundreds of teachers assaulted in NZ schools (2010) - 777 teachers were assaulted at work during 2008/9. 442 of them required ACC funded treatment for their injuries. This included a teacher who was stabbed in the back by a pupil during a lesson but doesn't include Lois Dear who was battered to death in her classroom.

"Some teachers were too scared to do lunchtime duty alone and had resorted to supervising in pairs."
 

Today's posts - click here