Labour women query filming of speakers

Press, 14 May 1984, Page 9

Labour women query filming of speakers

Delegates at the Labour Party conference in Christchurch on Saturday protested after a Television New Zealand film crew left during a speech on the role of women in this year’s General Election. The crew had filmed the first two of the three main speakers in the opening session of the conference: the Labour Party’s deputy leader, Mr Palmer, and the party president, Mr J. P. Anderton.

But the crew stopped filming as soon as the party’s women’s organiser, Ms Sandi Beatie, rose to speak on the role of women in the election campaign. At the end of her speech, two women delegates at the conference criticised the television crew for not filming it. In her address, Ms Beatie said that the New Zealand Labour Party should learn the lesson from the 1983 Australian election campaign. The Australian

Labour Party had set out to attract women voters.

Although the campaign was cut short because the election was held early, its results were still interesting. For the first time, equal numbers of women and men voted for Labour. Threequarters of young women voted Labour, she said. In New Zealand, 51 per cent of electors were women. The Labour Party should make a special effort to reach women and to encourage them to vote.

Ms Beatie said that her job was to encourage women to take an active role in Labour’s election campaign, to get women’s votes and to encourage women to be active in the Labour Party between elections.

Labour was the only political party which had announced it would have a specific policy for women, it was the only party to em»a women’s organiser it had selected 16

women candidates. However, women were still under-represented in the party organisation and in Parliament, she said.

Commenting later on the television crew’s decision not to film her, Ms Beatie said it was “fairly typical,” although she realised she was talking about organisational matters, which were not regarded as news. Several other speakers at the conference commented on the importance of recognising the role of women and attracting women’s votes. In his speech, Mr Anderton said that Labour had to win support from women, young people, trade unionists, business people and farmers. “The women of New Zealand are the middle ground for the Labour Party,” he said. “We must look to the women to give us the mandate for a compassionate, liberal Labour government to remain in power over a long period.”