Jan Tinetti Labour MP

Recently, along with several hundred other locals, I sat in the audience at the Holy Trinity Church listening and captivated by the words and wisdom of Helen Clark.

This was one of the many events held across New Zealand where Helen spoke to commemorate Suffrage 125. Many of the events were free, or did not come with a high ticket cost or a high speaker's fee.

As I sat there I pondered. What is it about Helen that makes her so special? I think that despite her huge accomplishments and career success here at home and internationally, she is a person without pretence, a person of huge integrity and honesty. And what is very evident is how much she cares about people and how much she wants to improve people's lives.

Helen said New Zealand had led the world in many things, including women getting the vote all those years ago, and we should be very proud of our accomplishments, but there is one thing we also lead the world in that we cannot be proud of. We have one of the highest incidence of domestic and family violence in the world.

Thank you to Helen, and thank you to all the organisers of the Suffrage 125 events. They have exceeded expectations in how absolutely brilliant they have been and have put the focus on how far we have come, but also on how much more we need to do.