CHANNEL INTERVIEW: DAME JUDY MCGREGOR
Dame Judy McGregor in her shared plot at Ngataringa Organic Gardens.
As a youngster I was taught that if something was wrong or worth fighting for you had to speak up and more than that, take action.
Dame Judy McGregor
– activist, advocate, academic
By Christine Young
Devonport resident Judy McGregor received a CNZM for services to journalism in the 2004 New Year’s Honours. She is now Dame Judy McGregor, honoured with a DNZM for services to human rights and health this year, a highly regarded academic and human rights advocate, and the immediate past (and last) chair of the Waitematā District Health Board. Christine Young traces her career – and discovers a hidden passion for gardening. Dame Judy might have remained and been a highly respected journalist throughout her career if she hadn’t been sacked from the Murdoch-owned 'Auckland Star' as its third to last editor. But ever the rebel as well as an achiever (she was suspended from school while a prefect for speaking out) she “didn’t want to take the paper tabloid, which management wanted,” she says. “It was in terminal decline anyway. I had been studying law part-time and I went home to Palmerston North (John and I married and he was editing the Manawatu Standard – we commuted for about seven years from Auckland) and I finished my law degree at Massey University where I began teaching journalism and communications.” She became a professor at Massey University and helped start the Massey campus at Albany, using business and community contacts she had from living on the North Shore. She still regards journalism as providing her with a strong foundation for her future career. “Journalism is an honourable and professional skill that has helped me with whatever job I’ve had. It helps you write clearly, develop finely honed intuition for those who fudge facts, and it is a great skill to have for advocacy roles,” – roles she has relished since she left journalism. Her dismissal effectively offered an opportunity for career change, and Judy made the most of the opportunity. At Massey, Judy completed a PhD in political communication; shortly afterwards, she was appointed to the first of two five-year terms as the first Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner with the New Zealand Human Rights Commission. This role perfectly suited Judy’s penchant for both advocacy and activism. “I had always been involved in gender activism around issues like the right to abortion and women’s
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Issue 133 - August 2022 www.channelmag.co.nz
representation and participation in governance and management. I had also developed a keen interest as an editor and as an academic in ensuring young Māori and Pacific people had opportunities to become journalists, and worked with the NZJTO (New Zealand Journalism Training Organisation) and Mana Māori Media on training programmes.” She could have added her support for the Māori land march in 1975 and the 1981 Springbok tour marches as earlier examples of her activism, an ethos developed even earlier: “As a youngster I was taught that if something was wrong or worth fighting for you had to speak up and more than that, take action.” Among many other achievements as EEO Commissioner, in 2012, during the statutory inquiry into employment issues in the age care industry, Judy went undercover and worked as a carer before completing a report published as ‘Caring Counts’. This experience still resonates with her. “[It] showed me how under-valued health care assistants and carers are in New Zealand, and still are, as they continue to fight for pay equity and a reasonable wage. During Covid, New Zealand relied on nurses and carers to keep older people and others safe. We owe them decent pay. A pay equity claim has just been lodged and I believe carers should be paid at least a third more than their current rates, to compensate for the hard physical job they do, the dirty work, and the emotional labour that is involved in caring for frail and vulnerable people every day.” Next step was an appointment at AUT University (where she is now Emeritus Professor) as professor of Human Rights. Judy explains this appointment as being a result of the work she did during her time as EEO Commissioner, working for the UN and the Asia Pacific Forum teaching communications strategies to new human rights institutions in
