Jan Tinetti: Former Minister for Women and Child Poverty Reduction on David Seymour's call to cull ministries

David Seymour is calling for culling of the government. 

He’s floated a policy that would reduce the number of ministers and government departments, calling into question the necessity of some. 

Racing, Hunting and Fishing, Hospitality, Space, and Child Poverty Reduction were a few he named. 

Jan Tinetti is the former Minister for Women and Child Poverty Reduction, and she told Heather du Plessis-Allan the reason these ministries exist is to take a specialised look at issues. 

She says that while they are often covered under other portfolios, they would simplify the issues far too much, and we wouldn’t get anywhere in solving them. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Now let's talk about what David Seymour said yesterday. He
floated the policy that would cut a whole lot of
ministries and a whole lot of ministerial portfolios and government.
He went after racing, hunting and fishing, hospitality space, child
poverty reduction. But also I have gone after the Minister
for Women Jantinetti is a former Minister for women and
also child poverty reduction in the last labor government is

(00:21):
with us. Now, Hello jan hy Heather sell me on
the Minister for women. Why do we need to keep
this ridiculous position.

Speaker 2 (00:29):
Well, it's not ridiculous for a start, because we've got
a lot of women out there that are well behind
where their male counterparts are. We have a very high
gender pay gap that's sitting stubbornly around eight to ten.
Women's unemployment is much higher in certain demographics. There's a
disproportionate impact on women during labor market shops, marginalized groups.

Speaker 1 (00:56):
No, no, no, the bad stuff. What's the minister done
about it all doing?

Speaker 2 (01:01):
So, what's happened is that we've got a ministry that
has can put a gender lens over it and can
have that specialized look at what is happening and the
interventions that will make a difference. So, as an example,
in the three years that I was minister, we developed
and premented plans to produce the lowest ever gender pay

(01:23):
gap in the public service that we could then take
and put that across into the private sector to see
how we made a difference in the public service. Take
that across to the private sector.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
Oh my gosh, you do this. What you do? This
is how you close the gender pay gap? Is you
go I and if you care about it, you go
and you say, hey, public service, pay the women the
same as the dudes, and then you rely on the
private sector women to actually ask for this. It's literally
just paying people more. You don't need a ministry for that.

Speaker 2 (01:53):
No, you actually do because people don't understand what happens
to creation. Just saying that exactly exactly proves my point,
because you have just simplified something that is so complex,
and that is the issue. Heither if we put this
out to other ministries to do, if we did all

(02:15):
of this out to other ministries, they would try and
simplify it far too much and we wouldn't get anywhere.
Would become this pit box mentality you just proved my point.

Speaker 1 (02:27):
Why do we need a child poverty reduction minister. Don't
tell me because we have child poverty. It's tell me
why we need the minister.

Speaker 2 (02:35):
Exactly for the same reason. When you put this to
other ministries, that does not become their big focus. When
you have a minister, which is really complex when you
are in government that their actual ministerial portfolio is incredibly technical,
but it brings together everything else, so you're able to
have the oversight of all of the other initiatives that

(02:58):
all of the other ministries are take part in, and
you're able to then say, well, look, this clearly isn't
working because you're bringing it all together, or this is working.
This is what we need to focus our resources on.

Speaker 1 (03:10):
So tell me something that you did as the child
poverty reduction minister that you saw and that you change
that made a difference.

Speaker 2 (03:17):
So child poverty reduction minister doesn't do is it doesn't
have the responsibility for the initiatives. What they do have
the responsibility for is monitoring the data. So what I
was able to do was look at that and say
these initiatives that NESD are putting in, for example, are
making this difference so we need to put more resourcing

(03:38):
into this area. So the minister has the oversight to say, well,
this is where we need to put more resourcing or
this is where we need to change the resourcing from.
It is a really critical part making certain that all
the ministry ministries work together.

Speaker 1 (03:53):
What did I do.

Speaker 2 (03:54):
I was able to look at yep, so absolutely can
do that. So in twenty twenty three Exit only took over.
In twenty twenty three we were able to lean into
where we could make the biggest difference as far as
children's education was concerned in the early years, so that
we could get people able to be able to afford

(04:14):
the right childcare, to get mums back into the workforce
predominantly mums, and so we introduced that extension of the
twenty hours free and that came not from my Minister
of Education hat but came from my Minister of Child
Poverty Reduction, looking at what was going to make the
biggest difference. Another one that we looked at was the
review and the implementation of Working for Families. That was

(04:38):
working with Carmel Secaloni, who was the Minister at that stage.
In that area. I was able to be looking and
having that really deep dive into the data and saying
to her this is where we need to be now
focusing our resources. That's the difference that that ministerial portfolio
has because they can have that absolute, sharp fire focus

(05:00):
on that particular area.

Speaker 1 (05:02):
All right, Jan I just feel like I need to
be honest with you. Haven't convinced me because you're only.

Speaker 3 (05:09):
Not a what not a surprise because the thing is,
shouldn't every minister who is doling out cash be trying
to get the kiddies who are poor out of poverty?

Speaker 1 (05:20):
I mean, I just it's completely over complicating very simple things.

Speaker 2 (05:23):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, And you're exactly right there. They absolutely
should be and that is the Minister of Child Poverty
Reduction's role to make sure that that's exactly what they're
doing and shepherd through that strategy of everybody working together
and making that their pass.

Speaker 1 (05:40):
I've got to give you some credit, jam because nobody
else would talk about this, not the Minister for Space
or HOSPO or Child current Child Property, nobody, nobody except
for you. So I appreciate you turning up and having
the debate. Jantiniti former Minister for Women and Child Poverty
Reduction For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen live
to news talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays. Follow

(06:00):
the podcast on iHeartRadio.