The first time Parliament heard the C word

Thursday, 15 May 2025

This report contains language that may offend.

When Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden hit out at misogyny, denouncing a column which called her and others “c…”, she introduced some new vocabulary to the Parliament.

Searching transcripts of Parliament’s debates back to 1990, there is no mention of the C word - that is, until van Velden arrived.

The House of Representatives has complicated rules which forbid “unparliamentary expression” and “unparliamentary language”.

But it’s always up to the Speaker to determine, in the moment and considering the context, what meets the bar for parliamentary expression.

On Wednesday, there was no objection when van Velden said: “I do not agree with the clearly gendered and patronising language that Andrea Vance used to reduce senior Cabinet Ministers to ‘girlbosses’, ‘hype-squads’, references to ‘girl math’, and ‘c…’.”

She said she had checked with the Clerk’s Office about whether it was appropriate to say that before she went into question time on Wednesday.

Leaving the House that afternoon, she said she had wanted to make a clear point around the misogyny and gendered criticism women face in Parliament. She said she would never direct that word at any other woman.

Hansard, the official record of Parliament’s debates, quoted her as saying “c[]” (in the official record the word is spelt out in full).

That heavy use of punctuation is because the original article, from the Sunday Star-Times, printed the letter C followed by three full stops (c…). So Hansard noted that the minister wasn’t directly quoting the Star-Times, even though that newspaper has conceded its columnist, national affairs editor Andrea Vance, was using the C-word to describe Government ministers.

Women outraged at Parliament - minister

The introduction of the C-Word to Hansard has caused a stir around Parliament.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis said van Velden was expressing the outrage many felt after reading the column.

“I think Brooke van Velden felt the outrage that many women in the Parliament felt this week when that word is used a term of abuse for women, no matter what side of politics you are on, we should say it is not ok,” she said.

She said she was 'dismayed' the Opposition brought the column into the House in the first place, when it used a different quote as part of a line of questioning towards van Velden.

'I would like to be idealistic and think some things are bigger than that politics and am disappointed more people didn't speak out about the use of that language in that column.'

Labour Party workplace relations spokesperson Jan Tinetti, who asked van Velden about the column during Wednesday’s question time, said she was surprised the minister chose to say the actual C word in the House.

“I didn’t like it. I didn’t like hearing it. I struggled with hearing it,” she said.

Tinetti has read out a separate quote from the column, asking if the minister agreed with a comment calling them “six girlbosses” and a “hype squad” which had been “united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women”.