Goff Phil: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
Goff Phil: Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill — In Committee 
[Volume:638;Page:8684] 
Hon PHIL GOFF (Minister of Defence) 
: 
 It is my pleasure as Minister of Defence to speak in favour of the Human Rights (Women in Armed Forces) Amendment Bill which I think is a significant bill in terms of its formal recognition of the role and the place of women within our New Zealand Defence Force. I welcome the fact that this bill introduced by my colleague Lynne Pillay and now taken over by the Minister of Women’s Affairs removes the last exemption for sexual discrimination in employment matters applying to the armed forces. I think we can celebrate that fact. 
The bill provides legislative recognition of a situation that already exists in practice which is that women in the Defence Force can and do participate in active combat roles. I am very proud of the fact that over the last 7 or 8 years as I have travelled around first as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Trade and now as Minister of Defence visiting New Zealand’s deployments internationally I have seen women in all facets of the work that our Defence Force is performing. 
I remember I must confess something that slightly staggered me. When I hopped on an Iroquois helicopter in Timor-Leste in 2000 the situation was still quite difficult on the ground and we had machine-gunners wearing helmets in full combat gear on either side of the helicopter. When we got to the destination on the other side—we had flown from Dili down to Suai—we disembarked from the helicopter. The machine-gunner on my side of the helicopter had taken their helmet off and there was this head of blonde hair and it was one of our women service personnel. I suppose that was a very practical example of the way women are and should be taking on those sorts of roles. I have seen women deployed in Afghanistan East Timor and in the Solomon Islands and they are participating as full members of the Defence Force without any thought that gender can or should be a matter that affects the role they are carrying out. 
I guess this bill is a demonstration of just how far the House has come over the last decade and a half. Fourteen years ago the Justice and Electoral Committee—and I must add before I was a member of that committee—stated in a report on the Human Rights Bill: “The Government”—that was the then National Government—“will not commit women to combat until it can be demonstrated that a clear well-established and informed social consensus for involving women in combat exists.” That was just 14 years ago and clearly we have moved a very long way since then. I believe that that was an excessively cautious and conservative statement and I am very pleased that in 2000 we formally rescinded the policy in the Defence Force of not allowing women to serve in combat roles. Women now routinely participate in deployments where there is potential for them to take part in combat and of course as a co-requisite of that potential for them to suffer injury or even death in service of their country. We work very very hard today in the modern defence force to prevent any loss of life or injury on the part of our service people. We work hard to maximise their safety but we see no reason to discriminate on the basis of gender in terms of whom we commit to undertaking operational tasks within the services. 
Servicewomen today currently make up just under 17 percent of our regular forces around 23 percent of the Navy—that comes at the top in terms of moving towards a greater gender balance—14 percent of the Army and 17 percent of the Air Force. Around 9 percent of our servicewomen are presently in combat roles. There are for example over 80 servicewomen deployed in land-based operations around the world and well over 80 serving on board our Royal New Zealand Navy ships. Indeed it would not be possible today to maintain the operational effectiveness of our Defence Force without the contribution of women in those roles. With that full integration today I am yet to hear any criticism in any of the services that women are in any way less effective in carrying out their roles than their male colleagues. 
This bill is therefore very welcome recognition of that role and it is as I mentioned earlier to a large extent after the event. It will bring the law into line with what is currently the policy and the practice of the Defence Force. With its passage New Zealand will be able to satisfy our country’s obligations under the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. The reservation relating to the armed forces and women is New Zealand’s only reservation to the convention. Indeed back in 2003 the committee urged New Zealand to expedite the steps necessary for the withdrawal of this reservation and with the passage of this legislation we will be able to do that. 
I am proud that we can now do this. I am proud that we live in a country where women are now enabled to play a full and equal role in all facets of our society and the Defence Force is not and should not be an exception to that.