2023 Substantive Equality Month

24 July - 18 August 2023

Equality can’t mean treating everyone the same. But exactly what does it mean, and what might promote it? In Substantive Equality Month each year, the law school hosts events to explore these questions.

The theme this year is socio-economic inequality. In Aotearoa NZ we like to think we are committed to giving everyone a fair go, and that we don’t have a class system. Yet income and wealth inequalities have been increasing rapidly for some time. Come and join us in exploring aspects of this problem and some of the ways in which we might start tackling it.

Before we turn to that theme, our first two events feature international visiting speakers addressing different aspects of the equality project.

Opening Week: our international visitors

All lectures are followed by tea and coffee.

Monday, 24 July	Sir Michael Kirby: Global Developments Affecting LGBTQI+ Minorities
Thursday, 27 July	John Taggart: Effective Participation in the Criminal Justice System – Intermediaries and Communication Assistants

Weeks 2 – 4: Thinking about Economic Inequality

**Week 2**
Tuesday, 1 August 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm	Lecture: Jodi Gardner: Private Law and Inequality

Week 3
Tuesday, 8 August 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm	Lecture: Simon Schofield: Ethnic and Gender Pay Gaps
Thursday, 10 August 5:30 pm - 7:30 pm	Panel on poverty: structural causes and structural responses (incl particular coverage of Māori perspectives): Max Harris, Tania Pouwhare, Emmy Rākete and Harry Toleafoa

Week 4
Wednesday, 16 August 5:30 pm - 6:30 pm	Lecture: Māmari Stephens and Hanna Wilberg: Poverty in Aotearoa NZ: is our Social Security System part of the solution or part of the problem?
Friday, 18 August 5 pm - 6 pm	Lecture: Dr Mele Tupou Vaitohi: Pasifika Students’ Success at Law School