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The appointment of a political steering group for the Integrated Auckland Transport Plan ran into a gender equity issue at a recent Auckland Council meeting.
Only two of seven members appointed to the group by Mayor Wayne Brown are women.
The group is tasked with bringing Auckland’s multiple transport plans together under a single comprehensive plan.
Cr Angela Dalton said the group would have a huge influence on the direction of Auckland’s transport future.
“This is a very important piece of work and because the majority of chairs and appointments to the Auckland Transport (board) are men we are going to be missing gender equity,” Dalton said.
Dalton pointed to a report from the Ministry of Transport in 2020 that investigated equity in Auckland’s transport system.
She said the report was talking specifically to the inequity around public transport and the inequity for women, for transgender (people), and for minority groups who were not getting a voice or getting served.
Mayor Brown tried to avoid the subject and passed Dalton’s concerns to chief of strategy Megan Tyler because she was “definitely a woman”.
Tyler said it was a good point but the direction of gender equity at Council was an issue for the Governing Body.
Cr Richard Hills suggested putting Cr Dalton onto the political steering group as the deputy chair of the planning committee and he chastised an unnamed councillor for laughing at the issue.
Mayor Brown said he would like to make the group smaller rather than include another member.
“We have just had a whole lot of men show up for Auckland Transport, that does not seem to be a problem,” Brown said.
He suggested one of the first things the political steering group could discuss was why Auckland Transport’s board does not have more women.
Cr Chris Darby said it was disappointing that the Mayor had not included Cr Dalton on the group because of her experience with city planning.
“If we go back to just trying to engineer our way out of this challenge, then we will go back to the 60s,” Darby said.
Cr Wayne Walker said he was more than happy with the number of people on the group.
“I would not mind being on it myself. I am sure any number of us might,” Walker said.
