Election Survey: Sue Bradford (Greens)

Sue Bradford is number 3 on the Green party list, a current MP, and the Greens candidate for East Coast Bays. As per all the Green responses to date, she's answered questions 1 and 11, and there'll be a link below to the Green Party response to questions 2 to 10. You can find a full index of all candidate responses to date here, including several others from the Greens.

The Questions & Answers
Question 1. What do you believe is currently the single biggest issue facing NZ women, and how would you like to address it if you are elected?
I think the biggest issue facing many NZ women is poverty. Hundred of thousands are living in quiet desperation either on low incomes or on benefits, often struggling to bring up children as well.

Overcoming poverty is a huge, complex job, but to start with:
- the minimum wage should be lifted to $15 an hour right now, then indexed annually to 66% of the average wage
- benefit levels should be raised so that they are actually enough for people to live on
- we should accelerate our state and community sector housing programmes to provide safe, healthy, affordable housing for all who need it.

Green Party combined response to questions 2 to 10.

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.
Despite all the advances of the last thirty years, our society still lives and breathes much structural discrimination against women.

This is seen, for example, in the ongoing high rates of violence and abuse of women and girls, mainly in their own homes, and in the fact that many women continue to earn proportionately less than men.

My biggest fear is that as we go into a time of economic recession and environmental vulnerability, we risk going backwards in all sorts of ways.

We women must be vigilant and strong, across all generations, to protect what we’ve achieved – in defending our rights to work; to reproductive and sexual choices; to fair incomes; to the DPB; to live our lives free from rape and violence to the maximum extent possible; and to participate fully in our country’s democratic processes.