National Council of Women Whangarei Branch

To Diana Edmonds, Whangarei Vice-President of the National Council of Women New Zealand; Patricia Woodley, National Vice-President of NCWNZ; distinguished guests; members of Whangarei NCW,  Greetings, Kia Ora, Kia Orana, Fakalofa Lahi Atu,Taloha Ni (sign) to you all in all the languages of the Realm of New Zealand, English, Maori, Cook Island Maori, Nuiean, Tokelauan and New Zealand sign language.

I am delighted to be here today to help celebrate the Seventieth Anniversary of the Whangarei Branch of the National Council of Women.

I was most interested to read the short history you sent me and to see how the branch began in 1938, with seven women's groups.

Those groups were: the Registered Nurses' Association, the Whangarei Civic League, the Women's Division of the Farmers' Union, the University Women's Club, the Young Women's Christian Association, the Pan-Pacific Women's Association and the Women's Club.

I am sure that the first thing we think of in terms of New Zealand women lobbying for what we want is the campaign for the vote in the 1880s and early 1890s.  It was spearheaded by the Women's Christian Temperance Union and in particular by its leader Kate Sheppard, whose image now graces our ten dollar note.

It was Kate's calm, quiet, confidence and her ladylike manners that people remembered.  She was brave and inspired to break the path that we have followed.

Here the movement was characterised not by the kind of violence that happened in Britain later on but by determined persuasiveness. Women held meetings, wrote letters to the newspapers, lobbied members of Parliament and collected names for massive petitions.  They argued their case calmly, clearly, confidently. They worked together for something that they knew would be an advantage not only to women but to New Zealand society in general.

And they won.  They got the vote in September  1893 and they went to the polls ten weeks later.

Sadly, they could still not become members of Parliament themselves and it was partly to redress this that Kate Sheppard instigated the formation of the National Council of Women in 1896.

As she put it at the Council's second annual conference:

"In Wellington is every year assembled a National Council of men, which holds a session lasting several months... From that Council women are excluded.  Under these circumstances a National Council which largely represents the thinking and working women of the colony becomes a necessity."

Here in the Whangarei branch is one woman who is not only a member of the Women's Christian Temperance Union but who, when she was a little girl, met Kate Sheppard when she went to a meeting with her mother.

She went on to become an international vice-president of the Temperance Union.  I would like to pay tribute to you,  Cleata Keyte,  [pronounced Kite] for your long commitment to the Temperance Union and the National Council of Women. That Cleata is still attending in her nineties says a great deal for her dedication and also for the organisation.

Yesterday in Wellington my husband, Anand, presided over the swearing in of the new Government.  Of the twenty members of the Cabinet, six are women.  Their portfolios include Police, Corrections, Veterans' Affairs, Education, Tertiary Education, Courts, Social Development and Employment, Disability Issues, Youth Affairs, Womens Affairs, Ethnic Affairs, Labour and Food Safety.  Outside Cabinet there are two women of the five new ministers whose portfolios include Consumer Affairs and the Community and Voluntary Sector.

The election happened after a process started by the then Prime Minister, Helen Clark when she named the date of the election.  This has to occur every three years and we learned of it through telephone calls to New Delhi, India where we were on the first state visit by a New Zealand Governor General.  During the time of the campaign the Governor General keeps a low profile and avoids any functions or statements which could be construed as political. 

After the election, the Governor General waits and observes until certainty develops.  This is a time of political negotiation under MMP and the Governor General only acts when satisfied that a party leader can command a majority in the House of Representatives.

Since the election we've hosted the Celebration for 100 years of Auckland Plunket and a credentials ceremony, attended Armistice Day remembrance services in Auckland and Wellington and opened an exhibition on the Great War in the Wellington Archives.  We attended a black tie dinner to raise funds for the Zimbabwean children who are victims of the Aids epidemic and visited Christchurch for the opening of the new Plunket Centre, to attend the Canterbury Show and meet with Princess Anne.  This last weekend saw us in Dunedin for Duke of Edinburgh, Scouts and St John Awards and celebrations at AquinasCollege a University of Otago hostel.  We have also received the Secretary General of the International Save the Children, a Swedish woman and the World President-Elect of Rotary, a Scot.

Yesterday in the morning a car bringing the then Prime Minister, Helen Clark, arrived at the temporary Wellington Office of the Governor General and she formally resigned as Prime Minister by letter.  The car left and about fifteen minutes later John Key arrived in the same car.  He was greeted and then formally told the Governor General that he could command a majority in the House of Representatives.  We then followed Mr Key to the Grand Hall in Parliament where the table kept at Government House for the purpose had been set up and polished and the swearing in took place.

We have a new Government.  That this happens peacefully and so quickly is testament to our systems and it is a time of high emotion for those people involved.  Simply put, the Governor General's role is overseeing the process.

Although we have had a better record in past elections the provisional results for 2008 show that only about 75 percent of us voted.  This means there is a need to re-value the right to vote.  I saw with delight that Joyce Armstrong and Helen MacGregor from this NCW branch produced a 'Ten dollar note - a reminder to vote' flyer for the 2005 election.

As the wife of the Governor General I have been in a privileged position to watch the change of power in our country.  After the years of not sharing the work of a lawyer, judge and then ombudsman, we are together most of the time.

In the past two years we have been from Cape Reinga to Stewart Island and made regional visits here to the North (where we visited the Childrens' Health Camp at Maunu), to Waikato, Gisborne, Rotorua, Otago and Southland which have been great opportunities to meet many New Zealanders who are striving and achieving in our country.

We have also travelled overseas on a number of occasions and this has provided a string of fascinating experiences including having lunch with Her Majesty the Queen and Prince Philip just before Anand took up office and, recently, being at the Beijing Olympics  and watching many of the events in which New Zealanders competed.

In May this year, we travelled to the United Nations, where we met Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon and his wife and where Anand received the Franklin Delano Roosevelt International Disability Award on behalf of the New Zealand Government.

Anand and I have had the honour of making the first State Visits by a New Zealand Governor-General to three countries, Canada, Mongolia and India and also State Visits to Australia and Samoa where we give a focus on New Zealand and New Zealand interests.  A visit to acknowledge the 90^th anniversary of the terrible battles around Paschendaele in Belgium was also a significant and sobering experience.

We don't have to travel in order to meet the most interesting overseas people.  Among the Heads of State that we have hosted at Government House Auckland and Wellington have been the Presidents of Ireland, Viet Nam, Mexico, South Korea, Finland, Uganda, Chile, Uruguay and the Head of State of Samoa.  The Prince and Princess of Orange also visited as did the Duke of York.

The investiture ceremonies provide us with a unique opportunity to meet special people.  This is a wonderful time for us and for the household.  The rooms are kept immaculately all the time but during investitures every member of the Team warmly puts themselves out for the outstanding New Zealanders that are recognised by New Zealand Honours.

The most recent investitures in Wellington and Auckland included honours for women such as agricultural scientist Professor Jacqueline Rowarth, Maori academic Dr Ngapere Hopa, composer, Gillian Karawe Whitehead, opera singer Dame Malvina Major, general practitioner Dr Carol Shand and many other significant women.

You may be aware that Government House in Wellington has closed for conservation.  In the interim, we're based at Government House in Auckland but from February or March next year we will also live at Vogel House in Lower Hutt, which will be renamed Government House Vogel.

Anand recently commented, when a journalist suggested the House was getting a makeover or the architectural equivalent of cosmetic surgery, that in reality it was more like a triple by-pass and a double hip replacement.  It is a building worthy of the cost and trouble, in my opinion, and upholds the stature and the role of the Office of the Governor General which is our core business, along with overseeing the change of government.

Along the way today I hope I have given you some insight into the life of the wife of the Governor General.

May I congratulate the National Council of Women for its ongoing work.  In continuing to lobby for New Zealand women you ensure that we can be natural and ourselves, can meet our own potential and make a really worthy contribution to New Zealand society.  May I challenge you to continue the promotion of political awareness and participation in the electoral process for which the right was hard-won.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Whangarei branch on its 70^th anniversary and wish you all the best for a growing future.

No reira, tena koutou, kia ora, kia kaha, tena koutou katoa.