Free Press

ACT’s regular bulletin

Sunday Star Tete-a-tete

This week David Seymour takes on Jacinda Ardern on the Nats’ gradual drift left. “Six of Parliament's seven parties now pursue bigger government, more tax and more red tape. Jacinda will no doubt say this is a fair representation of the views of New Zealanders, but when I speak to families, workers, and businesspeople across the country, I hear of real appetite for a New Zealand in which individuals are free to achieve and innovate without getting beaten down by a politically correct, tall-poppy state.”

Too Many Ministers of Demographic Groups

In an ideal world we’d get rid of all the ‘demographic’ ministers (Youth, Senior Citizens, Pacific Affairs, Maori, and Women). The Government is supposed to create the conditions for all people to prosper, not try to engineer society for particular groups. But alas, it seems Government is obsessed with identity politics, and it is inevitable that there will be a Minister for Asians, who now make up one-in-ten New Zealanders (what is the threshold for getting a Minister?).

What do they Do?

The Minister of Health is responsible for the delivery of Health, Commerce for the regulation of Commerce, Police for the Police force, and so on. It is not clear what the Minister for Senior Citizens, for instance, actually does unless those other Ministers are running their portfolios without regard to older people. Ditto the other ‘demographic’ ministers.

Hopeless Flailing

There has been much criticism of the current Minister for Women, Louise Upston after she failed to comment on the Chiefs-stripper affair. Ditto she has been missing in action on the question of whether it is right to punish DPB recipients who do not name the father of their child. It may be because that those were properly matters for the Ministers of Police and Social Development.

Good Minister, Impossible Portfolio

The reality is Louise Upston is a good stick but no politician could perform in the archaic role of Minister for Women, which was created in 1984. Upston herself has said she is not a feminist and she probably isn’t by the standards of those times. She can’t comment on deadbeat dads and badly behaved rugby teams from this portfolio because they are as much about men as they are about women.

A Hesitant Intervention

Free Press hesitates to enter the gender debate. We do not want hordes of the hopelessly angry, such as women-hating Men’s Rights Activists or former Conservative Party members, to show up at ACT conferences. Nonetheless we feel it is time to review the portfolio ministers, and update the Government’s portfolios for the modern gender debate.

A Few Stats

Where once women were clearly marginalised, men are now behind in most social statistics. University graduates: women 60/40. Imprisonment: men 94/6. Life expectancy: women 84/80 (non-Maori), 77/73 (Maori). Suicide rate: men 74/16. We could go on. The only significant stat running against women is income (Men 53/47) which is arguably at cost of the above statistics.

Time for Reform

If we can’t scrap all these ‘Demographic’ Ministers, then men need a Minister as much, perhaps more than, women. Since we are trying to create fewer Ministers, not more, let’s have a Minister of Gender. A Minister of Gender could enter the debates the Minister of Women has stayed out of, and would better reflect the reality of gender in New Zealand today.

Anti-Women?

No. To the extent that women have gender issues, they are inextricably tied up with men. Women care about their sons’ education. Women are literally left holding the baby by deadbeat dads, if not they are often married to men. When women suffer domestic violence it is most often by men. Much of this can be explained by poor fatherhood. In a world of inextricably linked gender issues, a Minister of Gender would better serve women than a Minister of Women.

While We’re At It

Let’s abolish the Ministers for Pacific, Maori, and Ethnic Affairs, and create a Minister for Race Relations who, unlike the hapless Race Relations Commissioner, would be democratically accountable. It will save us having a Minister for Asian Peoples (MFAP) down the track. If anybody can explain why we need Ministers for Senior Citizens and Youth, maybe we should keep them, but Free Press cannot imagine such an explanation.

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