Red Alert » Sue Moroney

Lack of PPL Dragging us Down

Sue Moroney — Thu, 10 May 2012 05:09:12 +0000

Our lack of paid parental leave is holding us back from being the best place in the world to raise children.
This was confirmed by the “State of the World’s Mothers” report released this week by Save the Children.
Even though we were placed fourth in their 13th annual report, its clear that our low rate of PPL was a key reason we slumped to 19th place when rated on their breastfeeding policy scorecard.
The report shows that 88% of NZ babies were breastfed at some stage, but that by 3 months that fell to just 56% and the data wasnt even available for NZ babies aged 6 months.
It is also of concern that NZ rated just 25th/44 countires on Save the Chidren’s scorecard for children living in developed countries.
I want NZ to be the best place in the world to raise children. Extending paid parental leave is one practical way we can achieve this.

National Government failing Women

Sue Moroney — Thu, 03 May 2012 04:09:58 +0000

Today’s unemployment figures show the female unemployment rate to be 7.1% – the highest it’s been since 1998.
This bad news follows hard on the heels of the Government’s announcement that they will veto extensions to paid parental leave; their mother-bashing proposals under the so-called “welfare reforms” banner and the news that Police will no longer report family violence data in their annual report.
So it’s time to ask a few questions.
Why is Minister of Women’s Affairs, Jo Goodhew, sitting on her hands while her Government fails the women of New Zealand?
Why have two CEO’s resigned from the Ministry of Women’s Affairs in the three years that National has been the Government? (MWA CEO Rowena Phair has just announced her resignation this week)
What does National have against women and mothers in particular?
They can’t say they didnt know women were suffering. In March, EEO Commissioner, Dr Judy McGregor warned that the cuts to public service jobs; the disproportionate loss of retail, accommodation and food service jobs in Christchurch and the reliance on construction in Christchurch to lift employment would all lead to increasing unemployment for women.
Women are bearing the brunt of the Government’s inability to pull the economy out of recession.
Not only are women losing jobs, but they bear the brunt of the emerging housing crisis, the fire-at-will bill and short-sighted cuts in early childhood and tertiary education.
And as the economic mismangement puts financial pressure on the family budget, guess who cops it then? Shockingly, sometimes in a physical way.
But of course the Police annual stats will hide that fact and we can all go back to pretending that domestic violence doesnt exist.
Meanwhile, the Minister of Women’s Affairs sits quietly outside of Cabinet and that’s just the way the National Party like it.

More News on Finland

Sue Moroney — Wed, 28 Mar 2012 04:36:17 +0000

Just in today – a ringing endorsement from the OECD that Finland does have something to learn from NZ.
“Finland could learn from programmes in New Zealand and Sweden that have boosted the flow of young professionals into preschool education and improved staff qualifications,” says the OECD Report.
Unfortunately, the National Government have dismantled the New Zealand programme which involved having a goal to reach 100% qualified staff by 2012 and providing funding for up to 100% qualified staff.
Now, that’s what John Key and Gerry Brownlee should be apologising for.
Sorry, Gerry. You won’t be able to use that as an example, either.

Govt drops target bomb on International Women’s Day

Sue Moroney — Wed, 07 Mar 2012 21:35:37 +0000

Today, Minister of Women’s Affairs, Jo Goodhew, announced the Government will only seek to appoint 45% women on state sector boards by 2014.
The target set by Labour was to appoint 50% women by 2012.
This Government clearly lacks ambition for taking the lead in increasing women’s leadership in New Zealand, even though it is one of three priorities they have for women.
Even worse is the low expectation they have set that private company boards should only aim to get to 10% women on boards.
Today, the Grant Thornton survey found that NZ has also gone backwards in the number of women in senior management roles – dropping from 32% in 2011 to 28% in 2012.
But what else can you expect when we have a Government that doesnt lead by example.
Happy International Women’s Day!

Women on Boards – NZ’s dismal record

Sue Moroney — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 22:17:25 +0000

Yesterday recruiting company Korn Ferry released a survey showing New Zealand running last in the Asia/Pacific Region for female directors on boards.

Its embarrassing that China, India, Malaysia, Siganpore, Hong Kong and Australia all fare better than us. We used to lead the world when it came to representation of women. Kate Sheppard must be turning in her grave.

I thought Institute of Directors Ralph Chivers hit the nail on the head when he said:”There is no shortage of women who aspire to work at that level, or potentially suitable candidates. Women have told us they have difficulty getting noticed for opportunities to be promoted.” How refreshingly honest! He wasn’t prepared to use the tired, worn-out excuse that the problem is women dont want to be directors, or that they weren’t good enough and needed “mentoring.” If I had a dollar for everytime I’ve heard that one, I would be a wealthy woman.

Despite the National Government having a glitzy launch of a “Women on Boards” initiative aimed at the private sector in 2009, the reality is they had just scrapped the target Labour had set of getting 50% women on public sector boards. And so the survey shows that there has been no increase in the proportion of women on our boards and in the public sector (where the Government itself appoints board members) there has been no improvement on the 41% representation Labour had achieved by the time we left office. And its important, because research shows that companies do better with women involved in their decision-making. Women directors are better at risk management, less prone to group thinking, better at problem-solving and better able to link to diverse customers. That’s what research tells us.

Across the ditch, they have made some quick progress on this issue by simply requiring companies to report the facts of the organisation’s gender balance. The result has been that women now make up 25% of new appointments to ASX company boards, compared to just 5% in 2009 before the measure was brought in. In less than a year, the number of women appointed to Australia’s corporate boards has gone from 8% to 14% by just taking this simple measure.It seems that when companies are required to look at their own dismal records, that’s when women start to get noticed. We could do the same – actually we were doing something remarkably similar to this with pay equity audits in the public sector before National scrapped it when they came into Government.

Funny that!

Watch Out Students

Sue Moroney — Wed, 28 Sep 2011 08:42:15 +0000

Today National and Act passed a law to reduce the effectiveness of student unions.
Earlier this year they passed a law that took student reps off polytechnic councils.

Seems they dont want students to have a strong voice when it comes to tertiary education. I wonder what they have in store for them?

Putting Kids First

Sue Moroney — Fri, 16 Sep 2011 21:25:56 +0000

This week I had the privilege of announcing Labour’s plan to lift achievement in primary schools – or more accurately, years 1-8. We called it “Reaching for the Stars – Whakamaua Nga Whetu” and it spells out the way forward from the debacle that is National’s national standards.

Our policy ensures that parents get plain language information they require on their child’s achievement, progress and next learning steps without schools having the flawed national standards imposed on them. Labour will require schools to use recognised assessment tools and teacher judgement to assess children against the celebrated NZ Curriculum. Simple really – no major drama.

Meanwhile, the Government has resorted to having the Ministry write national standard targets for the non-compliant schools. So much for self-managing schools! As we speak, those school boards are now being threatened with the sack if they return those charters to the Ministry with the words “under duress” on them. This Government seems determined to go to war with the education sector, rather than work with them to get good outcomes. As Labour’s policy shows, its all so unnecessary.

It is telling that Mrs Tolley hasnt been able to work out how to attack our policy. She started off with ” the policy is written by the unions,” but then changed tack later on to say it was a “watered down version of national standards.” Of course, neither is true – but the contradiction in her statements demonstrates how Crosby Textor are struggling to find the attack line on our policy. Which all adds up to it being just more great policy from Labour.

I prefer for our educators and school boards to be focused on providing excellent education for our children, than going to war with the Ministry of Education. Labour’s policy lets them get on with the job, while making sure parents are kept in the loop too. After all, we know that our kids’ education thrives when parents and teachers work in partnership.

In Defense of Alasdair Thompson (kinda)

Sue Moroney — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 05:05:31 +0000

Poor Alasdair Thompson – he got the “hospital pass.”
He had to go on National Radio for the Employers’ and Manufacturer’s Association and defend its position against legislation that would help to identify where women were getting paid less for doing the same work as men.
He was given the job of defending the indefensible and he came up with, well, the inplausible. But what else could he do?
There was no logical way he could mount the EMA’s opposition to a Bill proposed by Catherine Delahunty MP that simply gives employees transparency about pay rates so they can see if equal pay laws are being adhered to.
So, in the absence of logic he chose prejudice. It wouldn’t be the first time that’s happened and it won’t be the last.
Now that the EMA have distanced themselves from the statements made by their spokesperson, will they now drop their ridiculous opposition to equal pay?
That’s the real test of what they stand for.

20 Hours ECE looking shaky

Sue Moroney — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 06:44:06 +0000

Last week the early childhood education taskforce appointed by Minister Anne Tolley proposed a funding model that unravels Labour’s 20 hours free ECE.
Today in Parliament, Anne Tolley said her Government did not have a policy for 20 hours free ECE – despite promising to keep the policy, its fee controls and subsidies at the last election.
Joining the dots, it doesn’t look to good for access to affordable, quality ECE.
The ECE Taskforce maintains its not ditching 20 hours ECE, but that is just semantics. The fundamental planks of that policy are that it pays for the delivery of the ECE curriculum, Te Wharirki, for 20 hours; it is universally available to all families and providers can only charge optional fees for those 20 hours for extras like lunch, sun-screen etc.
The taskforce recommend that it only part-fund the curriculum for 20 hours, is funded at lower rates to most families and that the fee controls be removed. That is not the 20 hours ECE policy, whatever name they give to it.
Taskforce Chair Michael Mintrom has researched and written extensively on the subject of how to make unpalatable policies acceptable in the field of education and so the taskforce report says all the right things about ECE, but then proposes a funding model that doesnt deliver to that vision.
In defence of the taskforce members, its not their fault. I think they have done the best job they could with bad instructions from the Minister. The terms of reference were basically this – tell the Government how to add more children to the early childhood education sector, without increasing the cost.
One of the Taskforce members, Emeritus Professor Anne Smith, issued a minority report opposing the proposed funding model on the grounds that “it is likely that the level of subsidy would decline markedly for parents currently receiving 20 hours of subsidy a week.”
This Government’s refusal to reverse its unaffordable tax cuts in order to increase investment in ECE put the ECE Taskforce in an untenable situation.
However, that pales in comparison with the untenable situation National will put families in if fees go up even more than they already have for early childhood education.

Gifted Awareness Week: A time for questions

Sue Moroney — Tue, 31 May 2011 22:52:01 +0000

In this Government’s constant attempts to paint a crisis in our world-class education system they only ever want to talk about under-achievement.

Gifted Awareness Week (June 13-19) gives us a chance to reflect on the huge diversity of students in our education system.

Gifted students are not always the ones doing fabulously well. They may be the student with behavioural problems, the student who has trouble relating to their peers or the student who is disrupting the class.

Last week I visited the Correspondence School and was told that many gifted students use that service because the school environment doesn’t meet their needs.

It caused me to think about National’s national standards and how much harm the “one size fits all” approach does, not only to those students who are labelled failures but also those who need different challenges than most of their peers.

If a school’s worth is to be judged on how many students they get “over the bar” then not only will the under-achievers lose out, but so will those capable of very high-achievement.

Under that scenario it would be “human nature” for schools to direct their biggest effort into those who are just failing to reach the standard to get them “over the bar” and this could come at the expense of the others.

I would appreciate some feedback from those who have some experience with gifted children – either as family or in a professional capacity. What do you think?