Sue Kedgley is a writer, independent director, media trainer and consumer advocate.
She is the author of eight books -- the most recent being ‘Fifty Years of Feminism’ -a personal memoir being published in May 2021, which recounts the history of feminism from the early, heady days of women’s liberation, to the backlash against feminism in the 80’s and 90’s, to the more recent feminist resurgence.
Sue is on the Board of Consumer NZ, the Consumer Foundation and the Capital and Coast District Health Board. She was a awarded a 2016 Woman of Influence; a 2019 Woman in Governance award and a New Zealand Order of Merit in 2019.
Sue helped to bring women’s liberation to New Zealand in the early1970’s. She helped set up Auckland University Women’s Liberation in 1971; the National Organisation for Women (NOW) in 1972; and co-authored Sexist Society, the first book about women’s liberation in New Zealand, in 1973. She then worked at the United Nations on women’s issues for 8 years and helped organise two global UN conferences on women. Back in New Zealand, she worked for TVNZ and made three documentaries about women’s issues.
More recently, she was President of the National Committee of UN Women Aotearoa New Zealand from 2014 to 2016; Chair of the National Committee of the Women’s Empowerment Principles from 2016-18 and a member of the UN Women Asia Pacific Regional Civil Society Advisory Group. She is an issues Convenor for the National Council of Women.
Sue was a Green MP from 1999-2011. She was Green Party spokesperson on women’s issues and her private member’s bill, The Employment Relations Flexible Arrangements bill, became law in 2010. She was Chair of Parliament’s Health Select Committee for three years and initiated select committee inquiries into ambulance services, obesity and type 2 diabetes and the regulation of natural health products. While in Parliament, she also campaigned for safe, healthy food, animal welfare, public service broadcasting, public transport, aged care and many other issues.
She helped develop the Healthy School Food & Nutrition Guidelines; organised a successful 25 thousand signature petition to save the Overlander train service; secured funding for a $12 million Nutrition Fund for schools; an Organics Advisory Service; a National Antibiotic Resistance Surveillance system and an Integrated Health Unit within the Ministry of Health.
As part of her campaign for safe healthy food, Sue helped found the Safe Food Campaign and the National Food Safety Network. She was a Wellington City Councillor for 8 years in the 1980’s and a Wellington Regional Councillor for 6 years from 2013-2019. She is married to Denis Foot, is the mother of a 31 year old son, Zac, and has three step-children. She has an MA (Hons) in Political Science.