Electoral lobby wants more women M.P.s

Press, 24 July 1987, Page 9

Electoral lobby wants more women M.P.s

Political reporter

The women’s political lobby group, the Women’s Electoral Lobby, wants more women members of Parliament after the General Election but fears it is going to see fewer.

Women candidates had been chosen for only 17 "winnable” seats, said the national co-ordinator of the lobby, Ms Pauline McLeod.

Equality of representation between the sexes was as distant a goal as ever; there had been only 12 women members of Parliament in the 95-seat Parliament and there might not be any more in the next 97-seat Parliament. She said that if all 17 women candidates in winnable seats actually won, they would still comprise only 18 per cent of the next Parliament.

Labour was fielding 24 women candidates, of whom 13 were in winnable seats; National was fielding 12 women candidates, of whom only four were in winnable seats.

W.E.L. believed that proportional representation would ensure a greater number of excellent women in Parliament, Ms McLeod said. She endorsed the call for a referendum on the mixed-member proportional system of electoral reform. All candidates, both men and women, were being sent the 1987 Women’s Electoral Lobby’s manifesto that set out the 10 issues of vital concern to women for the election.

These were equal pay for work of equal value, corporatisation of public services, a nuclear-free New Zealand, child care, flexible work patterns, revision of the Contraception, Sterilisation and Abortion Act, recognising Maoris, strengthening the Human Rights Commission, proportional representation, and care of dependents.

Ms McLeod said women questioned the social cost of applying market forces and the user-pays concept to the Public Service.