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Part 1: INTRODUCTION
Report - Chief Executive
Highlights
The year in review
Part 2: Performance
Statement of responsibility
Statement of objectives
Statement of service performance
Statement of financial performance
Statement of financial position
Statement of movements in taxpayers’ funds
Statement of cash flows
Reconciliation of net surplus/(deficit) to net cash from operating activities
Statement of commitments
Statement of contingent liabilities and contingent assets
Statement of departmental expenditure and capital expenditure against appropriations
Statement of departmental unappropriated expenditure and capital expenditure
Statement of accounting policies
Notes to the financial statements
Audit report
Part 3: Performance against Output Plan
Output 1: Action Plan for New Zealand Women overview
Output 2: Economic sustainability
Output 3: Work-life balance
Output 4: Well-being
Output 5: Liaison with international bodies
Output 6: Nominations Service
Part 4: Capability
Management of the Ministry
Information on the Ministry
 

PART 1: INTRODUCTION

Report - Chief Executive

This was a year of challenges, changes and some good progress for the Ministry.

First the progress: This year the Ministry made significant contributions to initiatives that show early signs of making real differences for women who have suffered from family or sexual violence. Progress includes the publication of influential research on protection orders and the establishment of a research unit within the Ministry to improve our understanding of a number of issues around sexual violence. We will continue to have a strong focus on these issues in the coming year and beyond.

The Ministry also continues to develop its organisational culture, systems and people so we are better able to make a positive difference to the lives of women. This was acknowledged during the year by the Ministry winning the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand (IPANZ) award for managerial leadership. This is recognition for everyone in the organisation, because it reflects the quality of our work as much as the quality of leadership. Being a very small policy and nominations agency, at times the final results of our work seem a long way away, so receiving credit for our work helps us know that we are on the right track.

Changes during the year included saying goodbye to Hon Lianne Dalziel in November 2007 and welcoming our new Minister, Hon Steve Chadwick. This year also saw the departure of two key senior managers and the appointment of new leaders in policy and the nominations service.

Challenges for a small agency such as ours include the need to work collaboratively with other, larger, agencies and with women’s groups, communities and individuals. The work we are doing with the taskforces for sexual and family violence probably best epitomises our work. We take a very strong, but collaborative and steering, role on both taskforces, and we support this with high-quality policy work that focuses on the needs of women. We work with others collegially, but we always bring the voices and experiences of women themselves, combined with research, to bear upon the analysis.

We also constantly watch out for opportunities to assist with policy work that is in process, adding a gender focus. We have some enduring work programmes such as the work on occupational segregation, but we are also agile and respond to opportunities to make a difference in the health, employment and social assistance areas.

This has been a good year for the Ministry. The Ministry’s people are among the best in the public sector, working wisely, passionately and professionally. We are looking forward to the coming year.

Shenagh Gleisner
Chief Executive

• Publication of protection orders research that will lead to improvements in how the system works for women.
• The decision to introduce court advocates into the justice system.
• Removal of New Zealand’s last reservation to the United Nations (UN) Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) after abolishing the right of the defence forces to restrict women from serving in combat roles.
• Publication of a Ministry-sponsored Education Review Office (ERO) report on sexuality education in secondary schools.
• Preparation of a set of indicators to monitor the status of women.
• Increasing targeted nominations based on a comprehensive annual stocktake.
• Winning the Institute of Public Administration New Zealand (IPANZ) Public Sector Excellence Award for managerial leadership, with commendations for all parts of the Ministry for its achievements.
  

This year saw some significant steps towards our long-term aim of eliminating violence against women. Early in the year the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence began work and the Ministry established a research unit to provide better information on how sexual violence is dealt with by the justice system and on the impacts on victims. Much of the credit for pushing this issue onto the policy agenda must go to the non-government organisations (NGOs) and individual women who work with the survivors of sexual violence. The Taskforce and the research project both work closely with community organisations to ensure women’s voices are heard. In the long term we want to ensure New Zealand society no longer tolerates violence of this kind.

Our work to end family violence has continued. A milestone this year was the publication of Ministry-sponsored research on protection orders. This work has contributed strongly to the review of the Domestic Violence Act 1995, and should have a major impact on the safety of women.

The Ministry’s Chief Executive is deputy chair of both the Taskforce for Action on Violence within Families and the Taskforce for Action on Sexual Violence, and the Ministry makes a significant contribution to their work programmes.

 The gap between men’s and women’s pay rates, and incomes, is a major focus for the Ministry and drives much of our work in this area. We continue to be involved in a range of policy areas that promote real choices for women to balance paid work, caring responsibilities and other aspects of life, for example through the Choices for Living, Caring and Working Plan of Action.

Gender-based occupational segregation is a key factor in the continuing gender pay gap and is a particular area of focus for the Ministry. We are leading a number of projects in this area, including working with our Australian counterparts on a project exploring the economic effects of occupational segregation, and investigating how gender affects young people’s career decision-making.

Our nominations service has a big challenge ahead, to support government to reach its goal of 50 percent participation of women on state sector boards and committees by 2010. The service nominates suitably qualified women to serve on such bodies and undertakes an annual gender stocktake of state sector boards and committees.

This year’s stocktake saw a small drop in the percentage of women on state sector boards from 42 percent to 41.5 percent, though the long-term trend is positive. Information from the stocktake will help the nominations service target its efforts towards the areas where it can have the greatest impact.

The Ministry is also increasing its efforts to make the business case for more women on boards and in senior management in both the public and the private sector. Overseas research published during the year – such as the Catalyst report on the performance of Fortune 500 companies in the United States – provided further compelling evidence that diversity of views in senior management and at board level leads to better decision-making. The Ministry is working to make this information better known by decision-makers.

The process for New Zealand reporting progress on implementing its obligations under CEDAW continued with a full day of questioning by the Committee in New York. The then Minister of Women’s Affairs, Hon Lianne Dalziel was able to tell the Committee that New Zealand had withdrawn its last remaining reservation to the Convention after passing legislation to remove the last legal discrimination against women in employment – the right of the defence forces to restrict women from serving in combat roles.

The delegation was particularly commended on the way in which New Zealand supports its NGOs to attend CEDAW and present their reports. The questioning of the NGOs made for a more demanding session for the formal delegation, but the openness and willingness to be challenged to improve was appreciated by the Committee.

The Ministry also helped represent New Zealand at the annual Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) meeting at the United Nations in March.

This year we have increased our efforts to engage with and hear from those for whom we work – the women of New Zealand. This has perhaps been most evident in our work on violence, especially in the way focus groups shaped our sexual violence research programme.

Just as important are our ongoing relationships with our social partners – the Māori Women’s Welfare League (MWWL), the National Council of Women (NCW) and PACIFICA – and with a wide range of other community organisations that share an interest in building better lives for women.  These include organisations like Women’s Refuge, Business and Professional Women, Rural Women New Zealand and the YWCA.  The Ministry’s Kaihautū, Sonya Rimene continues to help the Ministry build relationships among Māori and to strengthen our overall ability to serve the needs of Māori women.

The Ministry again took an active role in celebrating women’s diversity and achievement. This included organising a forum for young women on career choices, working closely with other population agencies and organising He Wāhine Pūmanawa – a celebration of the lifetime contributions of a number of women who have worked ‘behind the scenes’ in the Māori Women’s Welfare League.

The Ministry’s high performance has been recognised in a number of ways in recent years. This year we won the ‘managerial leadership’ award in the IPANZ, Public Sector Excellence Awards.

While women continue to make gains in many areas, some barriers are proving hard to shift.  Some of these are ‘last mile’ issues like eliminating the last 12 percent of the pay gap or getting from 42 percent women’s representation on state sector boards to 50 percent. Others are issues that require significant changes in attitudes and behaviour. These include the attitudes that have allowed us to tolerate our terrible rates of family violence and sexual violence, and the attitudes that lead young women and young men to continue to make career choices that exclude ‘men’s work’ or ‘women’s work’.

As Ministers of Women’s Affairs have often commented, you cannot legislate attitude change. Removing these last barriers that prevent women – and men – from achieving their full potential requires a much more integrated approach. It means working more closely with other parts of government, with non-government agencies, with communities and with individuals.  For the Ministry it also means engaging more with men – because these are issues that women cannot solve on their own, and because men will also benefit from a society that makes the best use of everyone’s talents.

The Ministry will work to strengthen relationships and engagement with, among others, men, with younger women, with Māori women, and with women who have multiple disadvantages. It will also continue to produce the sound research and analysis needed to support good public policy that improves the lives of New Zealanders.

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