New! The 'Women's Rights Party' is now up and running in New Zealand.

What do you do when the political party for whom you worked and advocated for years lets you down in an unforgiveable way? When you can no longer trust them to have your back after years of believing in them through thick and thin, good times and bad? Well, what you do is form your own political party, and so the new Women’s Rights Party in New Zealand has come into being.

Jill Ovens and Dawn Trenberth, who along with a bunch of other women, formed the party, are no newbies to the world around politics. As previous powerhouses working for the Labour Party, they’ve now brought that experience to the Women’s Rights Party.

Why do we need a Women’s Rights Party? Because after Kellie-Jay Keen’s ‘Let Women Speak’ rally in Auckland on March 25^th, any lingering doubts about exactly how much women meant to our Members of Parliament were laid to rest. Not one MP condemned the violence perpetrated on women that day. Not one peep from any of them, neither woman nor man.

If they spoke about Kellie-Jay Keen at all, it was just to say hideously untrue things about her, and by extension about all the women and men who also believe that no woman has a penis, that women should retain their rights to single-sex spaces and sports, and that ‘gender affirming’ treatment for children is not benign and “life saving”. The leader of the Labour Party, and NZ’s current Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, was amongst them.

Mana Wāhine Kōrero, believed to be the only indigenous group anywhere to be fighting against the insertion of trans ideology into their culture, had this excellent article published in Plain Sight - Six weeks since Kellie-Jay Keen: reflections from Mana Wāhine Kōrero, which outlines the preparations which had to be made for the Let Women Speak rally, and the appalling behaviour from NZ’s media, politicians, and trans activists before, during, and after it.

There was no sleep to be had on the night after the rally for Jill and Dawn. They had both been there, and were wired from the horror of what they’d each seen and experienced. Eventually, unable to sleep, they spoke to each other by phone, and by the end of their conversation their resignations from the Labour Party, after years of highly active involvement, were decided.  

These women don’t muck around, and shortly afterwards the Women’s Rights Party came into being. It is now seeking 500 members within the next month in order to be able to register as a political party in time for the general election in October. Membership is open to NZ women and men for $5, and will not be available for public perusal, in order to keep the members’ privacy and confidentiality safe. Join Us - Women's Rights Party (womensrightsparty.nz)

Besides being able to forthrightly focus on women, there are other benefits to forming a political party rather than an advocacy group. For example, political billboards with the word ‘woman’ on them can be put up without being pulled down 24 hours later due to a frenzy of hurt feelings, as is what happened to Speak Up for Women’s billboard below in Wellington in July 2021.

It’s a joy to read the no-nonsense policies of the party, which clearly lay out their priorities for women and children, and leave no room to wonder just whose side they’re on. They cover a broad range of wellbeing issues for women, because women have a broad range of needs. That’s just how our bodies and lives are, which this party goes right to the core of. Policy - Women's Rights Party (womensrightsparty.nz)

I’m excited about the Women’s Rights Party. It’s a bold move, and as the saying goes “fortune favours the bold”. Whatever the future holds for it, I take my hat off to the group of strong women spearheading it, who, if anyone can, will make it work.

Dawn, however, still has moments of wondering whether or not to throw something at me for tagging her in that initial fateful Facebook post about marshalls being required for the Let Women Speak rally – lol! It’s been a helluva ride, all right, but none of these women are showing any signs of getting off it yet. If anything, it has only strengthened their resolve to stay with it.

Our Priorities - Women's Rights Party (womensrightsparty.nz)

Join Us - Women's Rights Party (womensrightsparty.nz)