Lee DeniseDENISE LEE (National—Maungakiekie): Thank you Madam Deputy Speaker. I'm honoured to stand and take a call in this debate today on the 125th anniversary of women's suffrage in New Zealand. I am the 138th female MP in New Zealand history. It's truly a day of celebration: 125 years ago women stood up and claimed their equal status. They demanded the right to vote the right to be included and the right to have their voices heard and it's humbling to stand here in the House today and pay tribute to the women who led this charge. In 1893 Kate Sheppard and 32000 other women took control. They did that to not only fundamentally change New Zealand society for the better but they started a fire around the world for other women too. While today is of huge national significance all politics is local. So I want to take the opportunity to highlight and pay tribute to a key woman in the suffrage movement from my own electorate of Maungakiekie Elizabeth Yates. She was a strong supporter of the suffrage movement. Elizabeth Yates was actually the first woman to vote in the Onehunga electorate under the new—back then—Electoral Act of 1893. She was determined to keep the movement strong and so she stood for the mayoralty of Onehunga and won the election just a few short months later in November. Not only did she do that; that signalled that she was the very first female mayor in the entire British Empire so a massive significant moment for my electorate Maungakiekie for Onehunga for New Zealand and for the British Empire.It is a privilege for me to represent and be part of a community that has that pioneering spirit such as Elizabeth Yates had and it's also a privilege for me to be the patron of the Onehunga Fencible & Historical Society guardians of our Onehunga past. Gender equality and pay equity are targets that we should be continuously working for and we must take the opportunities to reach this goal and do so and seize any moment that we can without delay. So it is disappointing that the Government did turn its head to some of these opportunities. They have now twice voted against a bill earlier in the year that I had in my name that would put in place a system to allow women to lodge pay equity claims. It is an important issue and I'd hoped to see some progress on it from a Government that had previously said that it was a priority for them. So I surmised back in March when my bill went through this House for its first and only reading that the Government would wait for the suffrage anniversary to produce their version and that's exactly what happened.So what's the problem with this? Women have been waiting all year since the non-passage of my bill for the Government to have their suffrage day photo op today. They could have got on to this much much earlier. One might wonder if they've been playing politics with pay equity. Having just seen the bill a very short time ago today it is my understanding and initial summation that 90 percent of it is the same content of the bill that I put through back in March.I'd like to switch gears now by acknowledging some very strong women in my family. I'm from a family of three girls—I'm the middle of three girls. My mother Lauris Lee is a hugely civic-minded kind wonderful and nurturing mum and a female leader in our community. She shepherded Rochelle Lee and Angela Lee my two sisters whom I adore and who have been towers of strength for me not only in my personal life but in my career. I think my father deserves a mention. He believed in hard labour from the very get-go. He was gender blind. We had to do everything that sons would have done and my dad—I'm not sure if he's thought about this—is a feminist from a long way back; he just may not know it.I'm raising two daughters Sydnee and Makenna. They face many issues that come their way and I'm doing my best as a single mum to foster the resilience in them that I see already. The Book of Proverbs has a quote. It says A woman is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." It's my hope that my daughters like many strong women before them the suffrage women of old will stare down the barrel of adversity with assurance that they too can laugh at the days to come and I'll be there by right beside them."