Dalziel Lianne: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Dalziel Lianne: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8678] 
Hon LIANNE DALZIEL (Minister of Women's Affairs) 
: 
 I appreciate the fact that tonight in the Chamber we seem to have the unanimous support of Parliament for the passage of this important legislation—the Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill. The point has been made that this is not law that is required to achieve equality of the sexes in our armed forces. We already have that; the provision of the defence forces already allows for that. I think the Chief of Defence Force made that decision some years ago and back in 2002 it became operational. So the amendment to the Human Rights Act is something that can be addressed without changing the current arrangements; the current arrangements are simply reinforced by this legislation. 
This legislation is important because it is going to remove a legislative discrimination. It is a statutory discrimination that exists on the statute book to protect something that is no longer required. Why does Parliament need to spend its time at this stage just reinforcing something that is allowed? The reason is a document that was tabled in Parliament today and that has now been referred to the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee—the national interest analysis for the removal of the reservation to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. 
As New Zealand’s Minister of Women’s Affairs I am very proud of the fact that I will be able to go to the United Nations—to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women—and present on behalf of the people of New Zealand that we are now fully compliant with the convention. I think it is a tremendous thing we are saying for a country that has offered leadership in respect of women’s affairs for such a long time to the extent that we were the first country where women were eligible to vote and that we are able to show leadership in this area as well. 
I want to tell the Committee what the text of the current reservation to the convention actually is. It reads as follows: “The Government of New Zealand the Government of the Cook Islands and the Government of Niue reserve the right not to apply the provisions of the Convention insofar as they are inconsistent with policies relating to recruitment into or service in: (a) The Armed Forces which reflect either directly or indirectly the fact that members of such forces are required to serve on armed forces aircraft or vessels and in situations involving armed combat; or (b) The law enforcement forces which reflect either directly or indirectly the fact that members of such forces are required to serve in situations involving violence or threat of violence.” That is the reservation we currently have with respect to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. When this legislation is passed and the national interest analysis comes back from the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee then New Zealand will have done everything that it was asked to do in respect of the convention. 
It is important to remember what the Government was asked when it reported to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women for the fifth reporting period. The exact words from the committee after considering New Zealand’s fifth report were: “State Party is urged to expedite the steps necessary for the withdrawal of its remaining reservation to the Convention …”. So this legislation is us doing precisely what we were asked to do—to expedite the steps remaining to enable us to ensure that we can withdraw this remaining reservation to the convention. 
 When I think of what Parliament has been able to do on this occasion I really want to acknowledge the work of the Foreign Affairs Defence and Trade Committee. Its members took this particular measure very seriously and came forward with some sensible recommendations about how the wording of the bill could be properly clarified in order to achieve the objectives we had set. 
I want to reinforce again just how important the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women is to New Zealand and what New Zealand is adopting by accepting that in its entirety. The language that is often used is that the convention represents an international Bill of Rights for women and I note one of my colleagues Darien Fenton used the expression that women’s rights were human rights. I heard a powerful women speaker at the Fourth World Conference on Women in 1995 in Beijing. She was one Hillary Clinton who I hope will be a President of the United States one day. She made the point very strongly that we cannot separate out women’s rights from human rights. Women’s rights are human rights. They are for the benefit of humanity and we cannot separate them one from the other. 
The whole point of incorporating the principle of equality of men and women in our legal system is to ensure that we do not have discriminatory laws whether or not they are there exercised in practice as is the case here. We actually do not want them on the face of our laws to be discriminatory. I think that this particular measure will reinforce how important our women are to our armed forces and the fact that we have come a long way since 1993 when the Human Rights Act was passed and it included this particular provision. 
I pay tribute to the Army and to the defence forces generally. This is not simply a matter of saying that all will be equal and that women will be able to undertake whatever role. In fact the Navy had already opened the diving branch to women in February 2000 so it had already gone some way towards removing the last restricted trade within that service. For the Army the issue was much more complex. It had to adopt a phased implementation—for example equipment that was a strength barrier to women or indeed to smaller men was phased out when new equipment was being introduced along with other changes such as accommodation. I know that the armed forces have also taken strong measures to ensure that there are no other forms of covert discrimination such as harassment including sexual harassment within the armed forces and it has certainly taken that role very very seriously. 
I pay tribute to all of our armed forces. They have come on board with wanting this to be—not as an interjector said earlier the right to serve on the front line—the right for women to have their engagement involvement and integration within the armed services respected for the equal role that they are able to provide. I am extremely pleased with this particular bill. I am very proud of the fact that I will be able to report this to the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women itself when I appear before it sometime between 23 July and 10 August this year. I pay tribute also to Lynne Pillay who brought this bill to the House as a member’s bill then was willing to see it given up to the Government so that we were able to progress this measure in a way that we could get it passed in time. As members know other members’ bills under that particular timetable have had to take a second role to the more controversial legislation covering a section 59 defence under the Crimes Act. Therefore we needed to pull this bill forward off the members’ schedule and on to the Government Order Paper in order to have it passed in time. 
We are very keen to ensure that we are able to lift the reservation in time for New Zealand to report to the committee this year. I think Lynne Pillay has done a great thing by not only putting the matter on the Order Paper in the way she did through a member’s bill but also being willing to give it up to the Government so that we could get it passed in time. I certainly pay tribute to Lynne Pillay because she really has done us a great service in making sure that this matter has been brought to our attention and given the appropriate attention. 
Finally I think I have already mentioned the select committee but I do want to pay tribute to it again. The select committee has done a great job in ensuring that we have the wording right. I think this is a very good example of when all parties can come together and support very good law.