Election Survey: Catherine Delahunty (Greens)

Catherine Delahunty is the Greens' candidate for East Coast and sits at number 8 on the Green Party's list. Her responses to questions 1 and 11 are below, along with a link to the combined Green response (aren't they so collective!) to the remainder. A full index of all candidate responses to date can be found here.

Question 1. What do you believe is currently the single biggest issue facing New Zealand women, and how would you like to address it if you are elected?
The chronic stress many women endure as they juggle full time work and family commitments. We would extend paid parental leave to 13 months, and extend the Flexible Working Hours bill to cover all employees, and not just those with dependents, as is the case at present.

But fundamentally the biggest issue facing women everywhere is the continual mutations and effects of patriarchy on all our lives.

The Green Party's combined response to questions 2 to 9 can be found here.

Question 11. Do you have any further comments that you wish to make about the role of women in our society? Please feel free to share your thoughts here.
While significant gains have been made for women over the past few decades, women are still clustered in low income jobs, and jobs that are predominantly done by women are among the lowest paid in New Zealand. We need to increase the minimum wage and introduce pay equity into aged care and other female dominated professions.

The time women are able to spend with their children has declined steeply over recent decades, as more and more women work full time. We want to extend paid parental leave and introduce flexible working arrangements to spend more time with their children, and reduce the stress so many women working long hours experience.

Sadly the word “feminist” is no longer celebrated and the model of female leadership in politics and the corporates is an imitation of patriarchal power. To re humanise the world we need collective models of leadership where women can express a different model driven by a commitment to children and all vulnerable people and to values of mutual support, justice and diversity. When the refuges are empty because violence is no longer a norm we will know we have made deep change. At the moment we have women in powerful positions but we do not have healthy models of power. Women need to engage with each other about these issues without acrimony and work towards a dismantling of oppressive structural models. This will benefit all people and the earth!