Wall LouisaLOUISA WALL (Labour—Manurewa): Tēna koe Te Māngai o Te Whare. I'm WP—woman parliamentarians I'm calling us—No. 97 and one of 149 but actually one of 1395 which represents 10.68 percent of the parliamentarians that have represented Aotearoa New Zealand. Today we're 40 percent so I absolutely agree with my colleague Amy Adams: we're getting there and we're going to get there sooner. But if we look back at our history it took 40 years before one of us was able to stand in this House as a member of Parliament after we won the right to vote. I want to acknowledge our suffragettes and also our activists actually because what they did was provide that opportunity for us to be here. It was through their activism: standing on street corners getting people to sign petitions actually engaging with our men. And I want to acknowledge that actually we're progressive because of the actions of our men. I want to thank our men for giving us that opportunity but it was kind of ironic because we have Mr Seddon out the front. I don't know if many people know but actually he tried to sabotage the vote. You know there were two independents who voted for the Electoral Act in 1893 that enabled us to win in spite of the Prime Minister of the day. So history is really important and this is a day where we remember that history. We remember the Kate Sheppards and the Meri Te Tai Mangakahias. But what I wanted to share today is that 125 years ago that Electoral Act received Royal assent but many of us might not know what it actually said. It declared for the purposes of voting that the word person" should include women. We were not considered to be a person. So it took 30 years for us as women to be considered "persons" and therefore citizens and therefore available and eligible to vote. But Hon Anne Tolley is absolutely right: the other thing that they did in that Act and I'm going to quote from section 9 because this was the only other section—there were 170 sections and 20 schedules: "No woman although duly registered as an elector shall be capable of being nominated as a candidate or of being elected as a member of the House of Representatives or of being appointed to the Legislative Council …". Next year on 29 October it is actually the 100 year celebration of the fact that we got the right to stand. So it's interesting when we think about us being the first in the world to vote and that's why I like reflecting on the legacy of someone like Meri Te Tai Mangakahia—an amazing Māori woman who spoke in the Kotahitanga Parliament. She said "Not only should we vote but we should be able to stand and why? Because I'm a landowner I know how to manage my land. I've got the capability and actually our men have failed. They've gone to England to negotiate with the Queen and we need to send women over because we will be able to engage with another woman and get things sorted." And so it is times like this where we acknowledge those people who have come before us but we also need to acknowledge the suffragettes the activists of today which is why I'm wearing this really cool power jacket. Actually Maggie it's from the Takapuna Lake House Art Centre because what that particular organisation decided to do this year to celebrate suffrage was to provide an opportunity for artists to demonstrate the relevance of suffrage to them. So it has been about the legacy of Kate Sheppard it has been about equal pay but this jacket—and I'm just going to show you the back—was made by an activist called Rachel Rowlands. It's called "My Mind" and it says "Women can do anything" and we have done everything and imagine if riding a bike meant you were too independent—because apparently if you rode a bike in the 1890s you were way too independent. So that's why this is a biker jacket and it represents freedom it represents independence it represents daring and it does pay tribute to Kate Sheppard and the $10 note. But I think what it also says and speaks to is the fact that suffrage today is as relevant as it was 125 years ago and until a time when this place I believe is 50:50 men and women every single private board is 50:50 men and women and same with our—I'm a proponent of quotas because if we can't get to these places organically then actually we need to intervene and if those mechanisms work then that's what we have to do. Kia ora."