Russell DeborahDr DEBORAH RUSSELL (Labour—New Lynn): Madam Chair thank you.DEPUTY SPEAKER: Speaker.Dr DEBORAH RUSSELL: Madam Deputy Speaker. I wish to speak today of three women who have worked or are still working to enfranchise women. The first I wish to speak of is Elizabeth Caradus and I have with me here a page from the suffrage petition. The first name on it is Elizabeth Caradus—or as I first heard of her Elizabeth Russell Caradus. She is my great-great-great-great-aunt and obviously signed the suffrage petition but that wasn't all. She arrived in New Zealand at the age of 10 in 1842 on the Jane Gifford. Six years later she married James Caradus. They had 15 children of whom about eight survived to adulthood. In amongst all this busy life of rearing children she was a prominent member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union especially in Auckland. Then when the Women's Franchise League was started in Auckland she became a prominent member of that group too.So she was one of the group of suffragists who worked hard to collect the signatures who worked with Kate Sheppard. Later on she became one of the earliest members of the National Council of Women of New Zealand. She was a suffragist and it is an honour to have that somewhat distant connection to her—and I am very proud to have that connection. We don't know much about her politics. We don't even know much about what she thought because as it turns out she was a working-class woman. She and her husband didn't have much money certainly not much time so she couldn't go to the conferences and the debates and so on. But we do know—and this is a quote from someone who went to a meeting that she was at—that she spoke with her accustomed zeal" and on another occasion she was recorded as giving an "excellent and pithy" speech. So there seems to be a tradition of speaking in my family.The second woman I wish to speak of today and to honour as someone who has worked to enfranchise women is Kristine Bartlett—the woman who took the pay equity case. Kristine and the union who worked with her took an important case that argued that women today should be paid equally for work of equal value and today on Women's Suffrage Day that pay equity work has now been acknowledged in a bill that has been presented to this House and will be debated.It is wonderful to see the Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill coming up in front of this House today. That bill also enfranchises women. Having a vote is only part of being enfranchised; being paid well for the work that you do gives you the capacity to operate it gives you the capacity to be part of a community and it gives you the capacity to be a full citizen. So I see that as very important work that is done not just economically but in terms of empowering women to be full citizens of this country. So to all the women and the men who have worked hard on the equal pay and the pay equity legislation I acknowledge the work you have done to enfranchise women.The third woman I wish to speak of today is a friend of mine—a friend who was honoured last night in the Women of Influence Awards where she was given the supreme award for the work that she does for women. Jackie Clark I salute you for the work you have done in South Auckland with The Aunties supporting women who have been affected by domestic violence and supporting them in the most tangible of ways: by ensuring that they can buy some groceries by making sure they have a mobile phone so that they can make phone calls without being traced by their partner by helping to pay for repairs to a car—all ways of empowering and enfranchising women so that they can lead full lives in their community. I am honoured to be part of The Aunties group too supporting women in times of need and enfranchising them.We do this work not for ourselves and we appear in this Parliament not for ourselves. I remember every time I am in this House the women who have supported me to be here and the women who I hope to support in my turn. I especially think of my mother Marie Russell and the support she has given me and my three teenage daughters: Bridgid Sophia and Ruth. To my darling daughters it is for you whom I fight. Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker."