Mrs Hercus willing to talk to men

Press, 15 November 1984, Page 5

Mrs Hercus willing to talk to men

Wellington reporter

The Minister of Women’s Affairs, Mrs Hercus, is ready and willing to talk to men’s groups about her new Ministry, but says she has not received any invitations to do so.

Responding to criticism that the women’s forums being held throughout New Zealand were not open to men, Mrs Hercus told- the Mana branch of Zonta;; the women’s professional and business organisation, that she was delighted men were interested in the Government’s programme of equality for women. “I want to hear men’s views, but clearly the women’s forums are

not the place to do that,” she said.

The forums were working meetings for women, so that the Government could establish women’s priorities for the Ministry’s work once it was operational. Any men who wanted to discuss this programme with her were welcome, she said, and at a number of mixed groups she had attended there had been some very useful input from men. Mrs Hercus also rebutted criticism that only the priorities for implementing Government policy were being discussed at the women’s forums. The Government had been elected on its women’s policy, in the same way as

it had on its education and trade policy, and planned to carry it out. If all Government policy were negotiable there would be no point in having it, she said. A political party had to do, to the best of its ability, what it had said it would do when running for election. That was the essence of democracy. The forums had a very important role to play in determining priorities' for the Ministry. Hundreds of policy planks were contained in the women’s policy, and the Government wanted to know the relative importance women throughout New Zealand attached to different parts of the policy.