National Party Undermines Percentage of Women in Parliament

30 November 2011
National Party Undermines Percentage of Women in Parliament

The Green Party is disappointed representation of women in Parliament has gone down for the first time since the introduction of MMP, Green Party Women’s Affairs spokesperson Catherine Delahunty said today.

“MMP has been essential in order to increase the representation of women in Parliament. There have been more female MPs in the last 15 years than there were since women were able to get into Parliament,” Ms Delahunty said.

“However, the initial gains have plateaued and political parties need to make a commitment to gender balance.

Ms Delahunty said that the Green Party had made a commitment to gender balance through its list ranking process.

“The Green’s commitment to gender balance is shown by the fact there are more new female Green MPs than all the other parties new MPs combined.
“Over half of our MPs are now female, this is in stark contrast to National whose caucus only has 15 women out of 60 MPs.

“National having only three female MPs in the top 20 shows a lack of commitment to gender representation.

“No country or Parliament is better off if women are blocked from political leadership,” Ms Delahunty said.

Gender break down of parties in Parliament
Party Female MPs Percentage
National 15/60 25%
Labour 12/34 35.3%
Green 7/13 54%
NZ First 3/8 37.5%
Maori 1/3 33%
Mana 0
United Future 0
ACT 0
Total 38