A day for women in government to make a difference

The Green Party is calling on the Government to make a commitment on International Women's Day [Monday, March 8] to introduce pay equity across the state sector.

Sue Kedgley, the Green Party Women's spokesperson, welcomed the release of an Action Plan for New Zealand Women, with its commitment to improving the economic independence of women, but she said specific, concrete actions on pay equity were now needed to put this commitment into place.

"There's no point in having a woman as Prime Minister and women as senior government ministers if they won't use their power to advance the cause of women and remove gross injustices, such as the pay gap for nurses," said Ms Kedgley, who will deliver the keynote speech to the breakfast meeting of the UN women's organization, Unifem in Christchurch tomorrow [Monday].

"Nurses are the most glaring example of an entire, largely female, profession that is undervalued and significantly underpaid. While nurses salaries start at around $30,000, police start at $40,000 and can earn over $60,000 on the basic salary scale. This is a clear case of discrimination that needs to be rectified with a pay equity settlement for nurses."

Ms Kedgley is fully supportive of the public petition being launched Monday by the Nurses Organisation, which calls on Parliament to ensure DHBs are adequately funded to pay nurses and midwives fairly and to ensure safe staffing levels.

"Nurses have been campaigning for years to be fairly paid," said Ms Kedgley. "With a robust government surplus, this is the year to deliver a pay equity settlement for nurses, and we call on government to make that commitment on International Women's Day."

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Gordon Campbell: On the Sony cyber attack

Given the layers of meta-irony involved, the saga of the Sony cyber attack seemed at the outset more like a snarky European art film than a popcorn entry at the multiplex.

Yet now with (a) President Barack Obama weighing in on the side of artistic freedom and calling for the US to make a ‘proportionate response’quickly followed by (b) North Korea’s entire Internet service going down, and with both these events being followed by (c) Sony deciding to backtrack and release The Interview film that had made it a target for the dastardly North Koreans in the first place, then ay caramba…the whole world will now be watching how this affair pans out. More>>