50 percent women's representation on boards achieved

The Government has achieved its target of 50 percent women on public sector boards and committees, Minister for Women Jan Tinetti announced today.

“In June 2018 Cabinet set a target of 50 percent women’s participation on public sector boards and committees. This target has now been met with 50.9 percent women’s representation, as at 31 December 2020,” said Minister Tinetti.

“We have also received ethnicity data for 98.6 percent of board members, the highest number of ethnicity data that we’ve ever been able to collect. This shows us that 71.4 percent of board members are European, 22.3 percent are Māori, 5.4 percent are Pacific peoples, 4.0 percent are Asian, and 0.8 percent are Middle Eastern, Latin American or African.

“Similarly to last year, we can see that European and Māori are well represented. However, there are considerable gaps in representation for our Pacific, Asian, Middle Eastern, Latin American, and African communities.

“Minister for Pacific Peoples Aupito William Sio and Minister for Diversity, Inclusion and Ethnic Communities Priyanca Radhakrishnan and I will work together to increase ethnic diversity across all public sector boards and committees. 

 “Good governance is crucial to New Zealand’s future decisions, especially as we continue to recover from COVID-19 and our boards need to represent the communities they serve.

“We are aware that we now only have a piece of the picture around diversity on public sector boards and committees. We will work to understand representation for New Zealand’s other diverse communities, such as disability and rainbow.” she said.

The stocktake of public sector boards and committees is undertaken annually by Manatū Wāhine Ministry for Women. More than 2,600 appointed members serve on public sector boards. These include large SOEs, conservation boards, and community trusts.

Read the 2020 stocktake of gender, Māori, Pacific, and ethnic diversity.