Farewell to Suzanne Snively - National Advisory Council on the Employment of Women (NACEW)

Thank you for inviting me to spend this time with you this evening. I now have the pleasant task of thanking Suzanne Snively for the huge contribution she has made over the past four-plus years as Chair of NACEW, and for her broader commitment to advancing the interests of women over many years and in many roles. I do so as Minister of Women's Affairs and also on behalf of my colleague the Minister of Labour, Hon Ruth Dyson, who held dual responsibilities over the period of Suzanne's tenure. She wanted me to say how much she valued working with you on every level.

Suzanne, when you say "goodbye" to someone as talented as you, the speech tends to begin to sound a bit like an obituary, as you read a long list of achievements.

I’ll try not to embarrass you too much, but I can’t let the moment pass without referring to a few of your significant contributions.

Firstly, I want to thank you, and the rest of the Council members, for the good work done by NACEW under your leadership.

NACEW’s current focus areas of pay and employment equity; precarious employment, and Mâori and Pacific women’s employment and enterprise are all issues that need attention and where NACEW can, and is, adding value.

I know that you have completed an initial report on processes to improve the quality of work for women in the home-care, residential care and cleaning industries. I haven't completed reading it yet.

But even a cursory glance says to me that it raises one of the most challenging issues I think that the government must find a way of confronting in the area of pay and employment equity. How do you address wages and conditions of employment when the government is not an employer, but is a funder? How does the predominantly female workforce bargain collectively when they are in scattered workplaces with multiple employers and largely de-unionised as a result of the Employment Contracts Act?

The Council’s work in areas such as women in self-employment and work-life balance and childcare has also been very valuable. I’m sure that the quality of that work is, at least in part, due to Suzanne’s leadership and her strong research background.

Suzanne’s CV makes pretty impressive reading. As I’m sure you know, she was a Fulbright scholar, and has held a range of senior positions and directorships in the public and private sectors, including a time as a director of the Reserve Bank. She is now a partner in PricewaterhouseCoopers, in addition to being a regular commentator on economic matters in the media and a frequent public speaker.

Suzanne is an economist, a profession that does not always have a reputation for incisive thinking – in fact, there’s an old saying that "if all the economists in the world were laid end to end, they still wouldn’t reach a conclusion". If inconclusiveness really is a hallmark of economists, Suzanne, I think we can safely say that you are an exception to that rule. Your work has been characterised by its quality and its usefulness, and has very often had a strong focus on issues that affect the quality of women’s lives.

This is true of your early work on family violence and it is certainly true of your work for NACEW.

Suzanne – thank you for your contribution to date, and thank you for the contribution that we are sure you will continue make to promote the advancement of women.