In a week when the government has been under fire for its rollback of pay equity, the announcement today of two of the three new Public Research Organisations (PRO) Boards has raised concerns for their lack of diversity.

A PSA assessment of the announcement by the Minister for Science, Innovation and Technology, Hon Dr Shane Reti, shows that the boards of the New Zealand Institute of Earth Sciences and the New Zealand Institute of Bioeconomy Science are collectively over 70 per cent male.

These two institutes are replacing the soon-to-be merged entities AgResearch, Scion, Manaaki Whenua, Plant and Food, NIWA, and GNS. The Boards of these CRIs collectively have a roughly 50-50 gender split, with 20 men and 22 women across the six Boards.

"It’s pretty outrageous that in 2025 that we are still seeing Boards - any Board, but particularly publicly funded research Boards - be made up of a majority of men," Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi national secretary, Fleur Fitzsimons, said.

"There are more men called Paul on the Earth Science Institute Board than there are women."

Of the 11 people named on the two Boards today, all had previously served as Crown Research Institute (CRI) directors, bar one exception.

"It really just looks like a shuffle of the existing CRI board members, but the women got the sack," Fitzsimons said.

According to the 2018 census, women make up 48 per cent of roles within STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics), but only 30 per cent are in leadership positions.

"These appointments are a real throwback to when the sciences were completely and utterly dominated by men.

"The gains that women have made in science over the past few decades are in no way reflected here. How can we possibly expect women to join STEM professions when our public institutions don’t represent them or their interests?

"The National government continues to show us its true colours this week. The message to women is pretty clear - we’re not interested in what you have to say and you’re not invited to the table."

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