International Women’s Day: CDF Speech

Ko te Ope Kātua o Aotearoa e!

We are the NZ Defence Force!

He toki nā Tū

We are the instruments of Tūmatauenga (We fight on the battleground)

He toki nā Rongo e,

We are the instruments of Rongo-ma-Tane (We carry out peace missions)

Mate atu he toa

If a warrior should fall…

Ara mai rā he toa!

Another shall rise to take his place

Ngā rau e toru o te patu kotahi e!

We are the three edges of the blade of a single patu

Tihei Mauri Ora

Alas, the breath of life

I am delighted to be here this morning, and to have been invited to be part of this event.

I believe it’s important that our whole organisation hears me say that women are vital to NZDF’s success.

That’s not about platitudes but is rooted in our experience.

I was shown an interesting article recently that posed the question what is diversity?

The author describes what they call ‘surface-level diversity’ — where we typically talk about demographics: gender and ethnicity and the like.

Under that, they argued, lies “deep-level diversity”, grounded in a person’s life experience: diversity of thought, and different ways of understanding information and the world around them.

This requires people, in all our wonderful forms, to be open to the diverse perspectives, talents and experiences that we all bring, that make a stronger whole.

This is the true value of diversity to an organisation like ours.

A diverse and inclusive Defence Force is better equipped to achieve operational outcomes — mission success — as a result of greater diversity of thought and skill.

Diversity means a greater ability to influence a broad range of stakeholders and populations, and an improved ability to gather and develop intelligence and situation awareness.

The article I referred to was written for a corporate audience, and says: “diverse talent should be considered a valuable business resource”.

But the sentiment applies equally to our Defence Force.

International Women’s Day celebrates and reflects on the achievements made.

But it also highlights the progress yet to be made and therefore must be an opportunity to advocate for more action that accelerates gender equality.

Our Defence Force isn’t yet perfect in this sense, we’re still a work in progress.

I will soon receive an update on what we are doing to progress More Military Women in our Force. But I am impatient and you must be also.

Together we must demand action to remove any barriers that still exist and to supercharge our actions to achieve our goals in this area — no more studies; no more reviews; no more seminars which collectively all examine the problem… Action is needed.

Given this, I sincerely believe we are open to improvement because we understand the connection between diversity, and achieving the success of our mission for New Zealand.

So I simply conclude as I began: women are vital to the success of the Defence Force.

Thank you