Moment to Arise
Saving money by cancelling pay equity.
Blackbird singing in the dead of night
Take these broken wings and learn to fly
All your life
You were only waiting for this moment to arise
Song by John Lennon and Paul McCartney.
Brooke cancels fair pay.
It’s deja vu on top of deja vu with these guys. Just when you think they might take a day off from being evil, the government comes out with something like this:
Some days it’s hard to find the words, although I must confess I found a few when I saw that headline. How bloody grim? Brooke van Velden grinning as she cancels pay equity claims for women.
I’m not suggesting we send her to the moon, but that sure is a giant leap backwards for womenkind.
Since 2020, those in sectors where most workers are female have been able to argue that they are underpaid compared to similar work in other areas done mostly by men. Which doesn’t seem like an unreasonable thing to do, fair’s fair, right?
Not only is the government rolling that back, but they are doing so under urgency, and the change is retrospective, so the 33 claims currently in flight will crash and burn, and those claimants will have to start all over again.
Stuff’s coverage of the news was excellent:
One more time, can I get a boo, and a hiss, and a who the hell do they think will do these jobs once the underpaid workforce sees that they have no intention of finally paying them fairly?
Like aged care workers? How many times can we kick these people? The Nurses? The support staff? And why on earth would a government do this?
The truth is that Brooke’s party, ACT, is philosophically opposed to interference in the market. If businesses want to pay women less, if a whole sector has the fairer sex receiving a less-than-fair deal, they don’t care. That’s just the market at work, and it should be left to its own devices—unless a bailout is needed.
As Debbie commented: “It seems equality is only important to ACT and the right wing when it's Pakeha vs Māori...”
It’s all about the money.
National’s desires are less ideologically driven. Their urgency is the budget.
The Finance Minister needs to make things appear less dire. So there are hollow words claiming that the process needs improving, but that is simply a smokescreen; you don’t throw out the baby with the bathwater to make a few tweaks.
Nicola had been crowing about how much the government had saved on emergency housing. It’s incredible what can be achieved by telling people the inn is full and no longer counting them.
Budget 2025: Govt saves $1b from hitting housing target early
From the paywalled article in the NZ Herald:
Finance Minister Nicola Willis said emergency housing changes made last year have saved $1 billion more than expected.
The savings will be reinvested in the forthcoming Budget, unveiled on May 22.
But Willis needed more, always more, and it needed to be billions, not just millions.
Old mate Brooke had a plan: “If we change the rules, keep things less fair, and apply that retrospectively, we can save heaps. How many of these people would vote for us anyway?”
A grotesque spectacle. Savings are being made by continuing to underpay women; these two smile like financial geniuses. It is a shameful attack by a panicked government, plunging a knife into the underpaid to make the books look better.
David Seymour boasted about Brooke’s saving as if she had worked miracles, but let's be honest. Van Velden didn’t discover an unused bucket of money; she didn’t find billions in change down the back of the couch. She chose to take the money that had been budgeted to address pay claims and said, “We don’t need that any more; this can be sacrificed for the budget.”
I can only imagine how those impacted by this must be feeling: betrayed, angry, broken by the injustice, taken for granted, and just expected to put up with it.
Why the bloody hell should they?
These people are there when we need them, and everything that seemed important no longer matters. They are the people who do the jobs others wouldn’t want—hard work for low wages, unfair wages—and now the government pulls out the rug, the mechanism that offered hope to those seeking equity, who would be paid what they’re worth.
Richelle posted:
“This is outrageous. Women deserve to be paid their value. So many women’s professions have been underpaid for so long, and pay equity claims have been crucial for bridging the gap. Why is this being put through under urgency!? Because their books don’t balance, and they have to cut money from somewhere (and it won’t be changing tax cuts for the wealthy). Once again, women pay the price. I’m actually furious.
P.S. I got paid more to work in a call centre than teach children after I graduated with a teaching degree (many years ago). How bollocks was that!?”
Darien commented:
“I hope Brooke's going to front those 65,000 low-paid care and support workers whose pay equity claim has been ongoing for at least two years. And I hope she is prepared to explain how our care facilities and home support will be staffed given she has just told them and other workers she doesn't give a damn.”
Riki said:
“What is wrong with this government? A government is supposed to be there for the country's betterment, not to decimate health, education and general fairness.”
Stand Up, Fight Back.
The PSA, opposition parties, and others reacted immediately to the news with a protest of 350 people gathering outside parliament yesterday. Here’s a clip from Labour’s Ingrid Leary as that got underway:
Labour issued a press release, with MP Ginny Andersen posting:
“Bloody disgraceful. Pay equity just got chucked on the budget bonfire. The Government is making it harder for women to get ahead during a cost-of-living crisis.
Women have historically been paid less. Currently, it’s at around 92 cents to every dollar a man earns. It is shameful that the government can find money for tax cuts for landlords and the tobacco lobby but not to pay women what we are worth.
In a cost-of-living crisis, this government repeatedly hurts those who earn the least while lining the pockets of their rich mates. This is not the New Zealand we want.”
Carmel Sepuloni said:
“This is disgusting and let us be clear - it is a war on women! Did women vote for a government that would lock them into being paid less for another decade? All the women that have fought for fairness of pay and then this lot come along and try to just legislate the progress away through urgent legislation. Goes to show how much they value women.”
Yesterday, Speaker Brownlee declined Jan Tinetti's request for an emergency debate on the amendment. The government instead pushing it through late into the evening.
For all the false claims diminishing the effect of their action, at least someone in the government knew this would play rather badly. Nicola Willis entered proceedings flanked by Louise Upston, Judith Collins, Erica Stanford and Nicola Grigg - some moral support for their immoral actions.
The amendment was passed through first and second reading, and the debate continued until sitting was suspended at 9:55 p.m. until 9 a.m. today.
If there was anything positive to take from proceedings, it was the opposition's response.
Jan Tinetti (L), Julie Anne Genter (G), Dr Megan Woods (L), Takutai Tarsh Kemp (TPM), Carmel Sepuloni (L), Ginny Andersen (L), DR Lawrence Xu-Nan (G), Deborah Russell (L), Teanau Tuiono (G), Rachel Boyak (L) and Camilla Belich (L) - all spoke well and fought hard, I am grateful for their strength and determination.
One side of the house did women proud. At the same time, those on the government benches, Brooke van Velden (A), Louise Upston (N), Casey Costello (NZF), and others offered craven words and dishonest claims.
It was a shameful attack on the women of Aotearoa who work too hard for too little money and deserve better than being stabbed in the back by their own government. As for those who support this, I don’t know how they can look a care worker or a nurse in the eye the next time they need them.
It has never been right for women in these caring professions to be underpaid; to roll back efforts to address that, to make a budget look better, is an absolute disgrace.
The government's message is clear: Roads, prisons, tax breaks for landlords, helicopters—all of these things are sacrosanct, and the money must be found, but paying women fairly? That’s something we can’t afford right now.
One thing is for sure: this government knows what a woman is—a convenient source of cheap labour and one whose needs can be sacrificed when push comes to shove.
To end, the conclusion of Jan Tinetti’s speech during the first reading, which I think sums it up well:
“The Government getting back into surplus should not be at the expense of women. Women are being asked to once again pay the price. This is an absolutely shameful day in the history of this Parliament. I have never felt so disgusted in what I am seeing right now.”
A shameful day for our nation, and I don’t think the government have heard the last of this by a long shot. What do you think?
Have a good day all you lovely people - this too shall pass, but women should not have to wait a moment longer.
Some of you might be momentarily disgruntled that the following clip is not the Beatles original; stay with it, you’ll forget that in just a moment, it’s pretty special.
Many of those National Party women spoke and voted in support of the pay equity legislation in 2018 and their words are on record. There must be a huge moral cost for such hypocrisy now.
Those condescending female politicians on the right who claim that, if they can rise to these positions, any woman can 🤬
I was so f#@$ing angry that I had to stop watching as ms willis and van veldon have probably never worked a physical job in their privileged lives. They've certainly never wiped someone's bum or cleaned their toilet.
Despite my rant, I am speechless 🥺