Radio New Zealand
Wellington, February 23, 2018 (745 am)
Equal-pay advocate Kristine Bartlett is the New Zealander of the Year for 2018.
Ms Bartlett is one of six major award recipients who were honoured last night.
Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern presented her with the award at a gala ceremony at the Cordis Hotel in Auckland.
Champion of aged-care nurses
Ms Bartlett was the face of a long-running campaign that successfully argued aged-care workers were underpaid because theirs was a woman-dominated sector.
Her efforts culminated in a $2 billion-dollar settlement, passed unanimously by Parliament, which boosted the wages of about 55,000 workers by between 15% and 50%.
Ms Bartlett, who’s 68 and has worked in rest homes for 24 years, joins such luminaries as Richie McCaw and Taika Waititi in winning the award.
Standing for Rights
She urged workers to stand up for their rights.
“No matter what you do or what you want, you stand up for your rights, because in the end you can win it,” she said.
Along with Ms Bartlett, social entrepreneur David Cameron was awarded ‘Young New Zealander of the Year’ and justice reform campaigner Kim Workman was named ‘Senior New Zealander of the Year.’
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Photo Caption:
Kristine Bartlett
(RNZ Picture by Mei Heron)
