School buses, fuel and isolation among top concerns for rural women
As New Zealand heads towards the 2026 New Zealand general election, Rural Women New Zealand says rural families are continuing to face growing pressure around cost of living, fuel, isolation and access to basic services.
Chief executive Sandra Kirby said many of the issues affecting rural women were deeply interconnected, with fuel costs and school transport remaining among the organisation’s biggest concerns heading into the election.
“I think we can’t go into this year’s election without talking about the price of fuel and the impact of that,” Kirby said.
“The fuel impact affects cost of living; it impacts people’s ability to connect.”
Kirby said uncertainty around fuel supply and pricing was creating anxiety for many rural families already dealing with significant transport demands.
“We know the cost of fuel already has an impact.”
School bus system ‘fundamentally broken’
Kirby said Rural Women New Zealand had been raising concerns around school buses for years but believed the issue could no longer be ignored.
“The school bus system is outdated. The funding system is outdated. It’s not working. It needs a rethink.”
She said the impact went well beyond simply getting children to school.
“We know it is the difference for families between being able to get kids to school, and sometimes it’s the difference between staying in a rural community or moving.”
Rural Women New Zealand recently welcomed interim changes to the system, but Kirby said they did not go far enough.
“Stopgap is not enough for a scheme that is fundamentally broken.”
She said when school transport becomes unreliable, the burden often falls back onto families, particularly women.
“If you are doing the school run, then you are committing yourself to an hour or more at the beginning and end of every day,” she said.
“That limits your ability to do other things. It impacts your cost of living because that’s a lot of travel.”
“It impacts your ability to earn a living, but also your ability to connect socially.”
Kirby said isolation remained one of the biggest ongoing issues facing rural women.
“Isolation was one of the reasons Rural Women New Zealand was set up 100 years ago, and that sense of isolation for rural women is still there.”
“The important thing about having time to connect, time to do some work for yourself, on yourself, by yourself, is really important.”
She said the organisation wanted to see a rural school bus service that was “safe, sustainable and reliable”.
“They don’t seem to be impossible asks.”
Cost of living showing up differently in rural communities
Kirby said the cost of living crisis often looked different in rural communities, where travel distances and access to services added extra pressure.
“One concern we’ve definitely heard is people putting off doctor’s visits,” she said.
She said many rural families were already operating on very low incomes, while also facing long travel times to access healthcare and essential services.
Fuel costs were also compounding the issue.
“For us, they’re so interrelated. The fuel and the cost of living.”
Pay equity still a major concern
Kirby said pay equity also remained a major issue for Rural Women New Zealand, particularly in female-dominated sectors common across rural communities.
“Fair pay for rural women is an investment in the community,” she said.
“A lot of women in rural areas are undertaking roles that are currently not paid proportionately because they are female-dominated sectors.”
Kirby said the organisation remained concerned not only about pay equity outcomes, but also how recent changes were handled.
“We would call on a reversal of the changes that were made,” she said.
“We are concerned not just about what was in it, but the way it was passed.”
She said any future changes should go through a full select committee process.
Pilot programmes ‘literally saving lives’
Kirby said Rural Women New Zealand remained deeply concerned about social isolation in rural communities, particularly among vulnerable women.
The organisation has been running pilot programmes in Southland and Taranaki focused on reducing isolation and connecting women with support services.
“We know they’ve made a difference. They’ve literally saved people’s lives.”
The programmes help connect women with services including:
· Budget advice
· Mental health support
· Suicide prevention services
· Housing support
· Women’s Refuge
“These are life-saving changes that women at the end of their tether need help navigating.”
Kirby said there was concern around the lack of guaranteed long-term funding for the programmes despite their success.
Weather events adding pressure
Kirby said adverse weather events were also becoming a growing issue for rural communities and infrastructure.
“This year we have seen at least one adverse weather event every month.”
She said repeated road closures and infrastructure damage were increasing isolation and making access to services even harder.
“We call on all parties to consider how we can build communities that can recover from these events.”
Kirby pointed to the ongoing closure of State Highway 3 in North Taranaki as an example.
“People living in the northern part of Taranaki have had four hours added to their drive to get to the hospital.”
“It’s been four months and there isn’t really an end in sight.”
She said governments needed to focus more on long-term infrastructure planning rather than repeated short-term fixes.
Rural families ‘need to feel like they count’
Kirby said Rural Women New Zealand believed governments generally understood rural issues, but rural communities still risked being sidelined by urban-focused decision making.
“We do find we have to constantly remind Government that there are 400,000 women who live rurally,” she said.
“Every government struggles with balancing the pull of the cities against rural communities.”
She urged politicians to listen closely to ministers and communities with lived rural experience.
“We would urge the Government to listen to ministers who have rural experience because they do know the issues for their communities.”
For Kirby, success after the election would not be measured in slogans or announcements, but in whether rural families felt supported in everyday life.
“Rural families would feel like they counted,” she said.
“They would be able to get their children to school safely, they would be able to work and have their work valued appropriately, and they would have access to services that improved their health and wellbeing.”
“It’s not asking for much.”
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