Former National MP and Justice Minister Amy Adams says opposition leader Christopher Luxon is right to rule out restricting abortion laws in Aotearoa New Zealand, calling the alternative “absolutely soul-destroying”.

Speaking to RNZ, Adams also sounded a note of warning to her socially conservative former colleagues that their views are increasingly “out-of-touch” with the public.

Shortly after taking the helm of National, Luxon — who describes himself as “pro-life” — committed not to change abortion laws if elected prime minister next year.

Following Friday’s Roe v Wade decision, Luxon went further, stating: “These laws will not be relitigated or revisited under a future National government, and these health services will remain fully funded”.

Adams told RNZ anything other than an unequivocal assurance would have put Luxon in a “very bad” position.

She said the vast majority of New Zealanders regarded abortion as a health issue.

“There is no place whatsoever for politicians and lawyers and judges to start determining what health procedures women are entitled to,” Adams said.

Conservative politicians ‘in peril’
“When political parties wade into that space, they put themselves in great peril and they risk getting substantially out of touch with those people they represent.”

Adams said the US Supreme Court decision overturning Roe v Wade was “outrageous” and “should scare women all over the world”.

“We can get quite complacent that our progressive movements… are set in stone, but actually it shows us that things can be undone and freedoms we perhaps take for granted… can be taken away from us,” Adams said.

“I felt quite sick… it made me really sad and actually very, very angry.”

Luxon: ‘I serve the common cause’
On Saturday, Luxon directed his Tamaki MP Simon O’Connor to remove a Facebook post showing support for the US Supreme Court ruling.

O’Connor posted “today is a good day” surrounded by love hearts.

Speaking to RNZ on Monday, Luxon said he felt the message was being “misrepresented as the National Party position”.

He said O’Connor was entitled to his own personal views but also believed the message was “insensitive to people on the other side of that debate”.

“It’s a sensitive and distressing issue, and I want to make sure that New Zealanders understand there will be no change under a National government.”

Luxon said all his MPs were united around the commitment not to change abortion law if elected next year.

“I serve the common cause of all New Zealanders,” Luxon said. “I’m not just here for one group or one interest or one topic.”

O’Connor did not return RNZ’s calls.

Questions also for Labour
Speaking at the regular post-Cabinet media conference, Acting Prime Minister Grant Robertson questioned whether Luxon’s assurance could be trusted.

“It’s great news if that is what Christopher Luxon says he’s going to do,” Robertson said.

“But I could also understand why people could be sceptical about that given what he has said in the past [and] given that over half of his caucus actually voted against [abortion reform].”

Robertson was also questioned over Foreign Minister Nanaia Mahuta’s tweet calling the Supreme Court ruling “draconian” despite voting against removing abortion from the Crimes Act.

He said Mahuta had dealt with the issue in accordance with her conscience and deferred questions to her.

“The Labour Party continues to support women in New Zealand to be able to access abortion services and to have reproductive rights. We passed the legislation, it was a government bill, and I stand by what we’re doing here.”

This article is republished under a community partnership agreement with RNZ.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

By Kalino Latu, editor of Kaniva News

Tonga’s Prime Minister ‘Akilisi Pohiva disagrees with a decision by his Minister of Education to ban girls from Tonga High School boxing or playing rugby.

He said the decision was not in line with his government’s policy.

“It is the government’s responsibility to provide opportunities for all the students to participate in all sports,” the Prime Minister said.

“It is for the individual students and their parents to decide whether or not they should participate in a particular sport like rugby and boxing.”

Education Minister Penisimani Fifita and his education authority had imposed the ban.

Meanwhile, a former Catholic principal said that if Catholic schools agreed with the Ministry’s decision it would be “a disgrace” for the church.

-Partners-

Fr ‘Aisake Vaisima, who was principal of ‘Apifo’ou College before he left Tonga for Fiji for a new role in January, told Kaniva News the Catholic church’s education authority had not banned its school girls from taking part in boxing and rugby.

The comments came after a controversial letter from the Ministry of Education and Training was leaked to news media, sparking an outrage that polarised international news as far away as New Zealand, Australia and the United Kingdom.

Majority not affected
It is understood the ban does not affect the majority of school girls in Tonga, especially at the church and private schools which are attended by 90 percent of all students in the kingdom.

In the letter, an education authority told the principal of Tonga High School, a government-sponsored institute, that a decision had been made by the Director of Education to ban its girls from participating in rugby and boxing.

The letter, which was written in Tongan, was dated March 15.

It Tongan it said:

“Ko hono ‘uhinga he ‘oku fepaki ia mo ‘etau ‘ulungaanga fakafonua ki hono tauhi ke molumalu ‘a ha’a fafine, ‘o taau mo e tala tukufakaholo na’e fatu’aki ‘a e fakava’e na’e fakatoka talu pea mei ono’aho ‘o kehe ai ‘a Tonga pea mei ha toe fonua ‘i he Pasifiki pea mo mamani.”

This translates into English as: “The reason is because it is against our culture to keep women dignified so it still upholds the tradition of which its basis had been set out since the olden days making Tonga exceptional in the Pacific and the world.”

Prime Minister Pohiva, said the letter from the Ministry of Education and Training to Tonga High School “purporting to ban girls from participating in rugby and boxing is not Tongan Government policy,” his office said in a statement this afternoon.

“Sports is good for the health and the wellbeing of the people and this government, like previous governments, actively encourages the participation of every Tongan student in all sports without discrimination.”

International reaction
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern has expressed her disapproval over the ban.

Ardern said New Zealand’s aid support for sports in Tonga would not be threatened, but she disagreed with the directive.

“As a school student I played touch rugby and I would encourage all young women to engage in whatever sporting code they are interested in,” Ardern said.

“We provide funding via MFAT to Tonga to encourage children’s participation in sports. A young woman will still be able to do that through their villages, even if this dictate is made by these schools.”

The New Zealand-funded Sports for Health Rugby Programme was launched at Kolomotu’a Community Rugby Field in February.

Known as Quick Rip, it was intended to focus on girls and boys aged 13 – 18 years of age.

New Zealand provided NZ$4 million to support efforts in four Pacific countries, including Tonga, to reduce the rate of non-communicable diseases in the Pacific.

Some people on Facebook supported the ministry’s move and said rugby and boxing were sports for men only and Tongan girls should not take part in them.

Kaniva News has a sharing arrangement with Asia Pacific Report.

Article by AsiaPacificReport.nz

Op-Ed by Shamshad Akhtar,  Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations.

In 2018, we have an opportunity to accelerate progress towards gender equality. Movements such as #MeToo have shone the spotlight on an unacceptable status quo and demonstrated how too many women the world over continue to be deprived of respect and equal opportunities. Let’s use International Women’s Day to build on this global momentum for change and suggest targeted solutions to empower women across our economies and societies. Women entrepreneurs have a key role to play.

In Asia and the Pacific, there has been some progress towards greater equality. Maternal mortality rates have dropped by over 50 per cent between 2000 and 2015. An equal number of girls and boys are now enrolled for primary school education, and near parity exists for secondary and tertiary education. But overall progress remains much too slow. On our current trajectory, South Asia would achieve gender equality in 60 years, Central Asia in 130 and East Asia and the Pacific in 160. At this rate, most women will be dead before they are equal. We need to speed things up.

With this objective in mind, the obstacles women face to find decent work or set up a business in Asia and the Pacific deserve special attention. Female labour force participation has declined in our region over the past thirty years. Most working women are trapped in precarious, informal employment, characterized by low wages and dangerous working conditions. Women are relied on to give up to six hours unpaid care work a day: invaluable to society, but thwarting career prospects, ambitions and political representation.

We know that setting up a business is a key means for women to empower themselves and break out of poverty. But just as becoming an employee is harder for women, so is becoming an entrepreneur. Barriers include a lack of access to education or training, and limited access to ICT, market information and finance. Indeed, women-owned SMEs with reliable funding sources are few and far between, in part because land is often required as collateral for credit in a region where women make up a small minority of landholders. Burdensome registration procedures combine with societal prejudice to frustrate women’s entrepreneurial potential.

The good news is that despite these constraints, the number of women entrepreneurs has been increasing in the Asia-Pacific region. Women entrepreneurs in ASEAN countries have been particularly successful. The proportion of firms with women owners stands at nearly 70 per cent in the Philippines, over 60 per cent in Thailand and over 50 per cent in Viet Nam. This has been achieved through gender responsive budgeting, programmes to support SMEs, and strong civil society advocacy to ensure women’s entrepreneurship is prioritised in national policy making. At the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) we want to build on this success and work with countries across policy areas to develop a gender responsive entrepreneurial ecosystem. Four areas are critical to do so.

First, we need to improve women’s access to diverse sources of financing. Women entrepreneurship bonds, impact investment funds and gender responsive FinTech solutions are needed to quicken the pace of change. Combined with measures to improve financial literacy, these solutions should improve access to finance but also reduce transaction costs and support broader growth.

Second, we must improve women’s access to ICT and innovative technologies. Dedicated support is needed for women SME owners wishing to adopt of the latest technology to improve business processes, product promotion and sell into bigger markets. This should be accompanied by lifelong education and training opportunities to enable women to ride successive waves of ICT innovation.

Third, we need to promote a gender responsive policy environment. Public and private institutions should increase the number of women entrepreneurs on advisory boards and the banking sector should be incentivised to serve women better. Streamlined business registration procedures and proactive outreach to potential and existing women entrepreneurs can make a real difference. Women entrepreneur networks, ensuring women’s voices are heard clearly in chambers of commerce, business associations or civil service commissions, must be part of the picture.

Making life easier for women entrepreneurs is to support women’s empowerment. It can help eliminate gender inequality, protect a fundamental human right and bring considerable economic benefits. Gender equality in Asia would increase per capita income by 70 per cent over sixty years. This would make a huge contribution to achieving sustainable development and reducing poverty. On International Women’s Day, my hope is that governments across Asia and the Pacific will be entrepreneurial about achieving equality and give women the support and opportunities they deserve.

EDITOR’S NOTE:

Shamshad Akhtar is the Under-Secretary-General of the United Nations and Executive Secretary of Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)

Philippine protesters at an anti-Trump rally in Manila at the weekend. Image: Eagle News Philippines

Hundreds of Filipinos protested outside the United States embassy in the Philippines capital of Manila at the weekend to denounce Donald Trump as incoming president, accusing him of sexism, racism and xenophobia.

Chanting “Dump Trump,” the protesters from leftist groups also expressed concerns that Trump was a threat to the millions of Filipino immigrants living in the US.

“It is alarming to know that an accused sexual predator, a known racist, sexist, xenophobic man is assuming the presidency of the strongest capitalist country in the world,” said Joms Salvador, secretary-general of women’s group Gabriela.

“The decades of struggle of women across the world to fight for their rights is threatened by Trump’s presidency.”

The about 300 people who gathered near the US embassy in Manila held placards with the message “@realDonaldTrump hands off Filipino immigrants” and “Trump you’re trash.” They symbolically dumped photos of Trump in the rubbish bin.

Trump defeated Hillary Clinton after a divisive campaign in which the real-estate billionaire vowed to deport millions of illegal migrants and faced multiple accusations of sexual harassment.

“We are very concerned about Filipino workers in the US dealing with a rise of racism. Some Filipinos there are getting paranoid about their personal safety and their job security,” Salvador said.

The Philippines, a former American colony, has strong cultural and economic ties with the United States. The two countries are bound by a mutual defence treaty and US forces have for many years helped the Philippines on various security issues.

However leftist groups have long railed against the US for exporting its capitalist model and for what they see as continued American domination of the Philippines.

Protesters at the rally also burned an American flag as they reiterated their longtime demands for US troops to leave the Philippines and the tearing up of what they called “unequal” military agreements.

Bilateral relations have soured under firebrand Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte, who has pivoted his nation’s foreign policy towards China and Russia since taking office nearly seven months ago.