There is increasing evidence that men speaking up are gaining a little traction. The Labour Party leadership’s rapid retreat from the ‘man-ban’, sexist exclusion of men from electorates (that can only be described as a misandrist corruption of democracy) was one example. We believe that 2, or 5 or 10 years ago no male Labour person would have dared oppose such feminist privilege. But the population seems to be waking up to the unreliability and exaggeration of feminist propaganda. Most probably don’t look closely at it or think deeply about it, but their b.s. detectors are more active these days. The efforts are working, efforts of those who contribute analysis and comment here at MENZ Issues, who participate in democratic processes and who attempt to raise public awareness. Keep up the good work.

No man-ban, but something else: candidates
Laura McQuillan, NZ NewswireAugust 31, 2013, 4:54 pm
http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/18735473/no-man-ban-but-something-else-candidates/

Labour leadership contender Grant Robertson has quickly shut down speculation he’s putting the controversial man-ban proposal on the table after promising a 50-50 gender split at next year’s election.

Mr Robertson made the promise at the first of 12 party meetings around the country, where he, David Cunliffe and Shane Jones are lobbying to take over the Labour leadership, after David Shearer announced his resignation earlier this month.

Mr Robertson gave no detail in his speech of how he planned to achieve a perfect gender split in caucus following the election, leading to speculation he would bring back the man-ban idea, which would see Labour have women-only electorates to boost equality.

The idea was scrapped by Labour’s national council after pushback by Mr Shearer and other caucus members, following ridicule over the proposal.

Mr Robertson says that’s not what he was intending in his speech.

“There’s lots of different ways of getting more women into politics,” he told media, dubbing the man-ban “a distraction”.

“We’ve got a range of mechanisms – we’ve got strategic selection criteria and we have fantastic people putting themselves up.”

Earlier in the week, Mr Robertson said it was up to party members to bring back the proposal at Labour’s November conference, if they desired it.

Mr Cunliffe says he’ll leave the mechanism for boosting female MP numbers up to the party, and doesn’t “hold a candle” for female-only selection.

“It can take a range of forms: it can be education, it can be gender equity checks as we’re constructing our lists, it can be guidance to [local electorate committees], it can be the development of candidates.”

Mr Jones agrees another mechanism is needed.

“I think we’ve got to attract a range of women candidates that up to date haven’t thought about Labour as their waka.
“The man-ban mechanism, I will not agree with. The outcome of bringing our wahine component up to 50 per cent and beyond, if it’s on merit, I’ll be your greatest supporter.”