October 26, 2022
Peke-Mason tips the gender split to women
The swearing-in of Labour list MP Soraya Peke-Mason to replace Trevor Mallard means Parliament now has more women (60) than men (59).
Former MP Sandra Lee-Vercoe says that’s a far cry from when she was elected Auckland Central MP in 1993 under first-past-the-post voting, when there were very few women MPs and even fewer wāhine Maori in the House.
She says while women can have all the traits and flaws of their male colleagues, her observation is they can also be more prepared to work collegially and across party lines in situations like select committees.
“Women can be very intuitive in terms of how they perceive issues and arguments in a way that is different than men so I think its wonderful we have reached a point in New Zealand’s parliament- first country to give women the vote – that we have a 50-50 split now,” Ms Lee-Vercoe says.
While central government is changing, she’s concerned at age discrimination in local government, with the majority of members around the Auckland Council table being over 60.