National Party ministers grilled on pay equity changes

Wednesday, 7 May 2025

Nicola Willis, pictured in the House earlier this year, says implementing equal pay as required by the previous law would have cost the government billions of dollars.

Labour dialled up the attacks on National over Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden’s reform of pay equity laws yesterday, as they were rushed through Parliament under urgency.

Finance Minister Nicola Willis was unapologetic, saying implementing equal pay as required by the previous law would have cost the government billions of dollars - a cost “far, far” greater than had been signalled at the time Pay Equity Laws were passed in 2020.

The Equal Pay Act changes were announced on Tuesday by van Velden.

The amendment bill passed late Wednesday, the changes rushed through without the usual select committee scrutiny and public consultation. All opposition parties voted against it.

The changes will see current pay equity claims dumped, and the threshold for future ones narrowed, and have sparked fury from unions. The changes stand to impact hundreds of thousands of low-paid women, but will save the cash-strapped Government billions.

Willis said she had been briefed on the projected costs of pay equity settlements within days of becoming finance minister and, “what I do recall observing was that those projected costs were far, far greater than I had ever appreciated, and far greater than I think Parliament appreciated when it first passed the pay equity reforms in 2020.”

Minister for Workplace Relations and Safety Brooke van Velden announced the changes on Tuesday. They will be rushed through the House.

ACT leader David Seymour, also the associate finance minister, on Tuesday credited van Velden with “saving” the Budget.

Willis told the House Seymour had made the comments in his capacity as ACT leader and were not words “I would choose”.

Labour’s finance spokesperson Barbara Edmonds, referencing Government pledges not to cut frontline services, asked Willis “how is cancelling the pay equity claim for … teachers investing in the front line?”

The Post Primary Teachers Association says teachers have a current live claim, representing 95,000 teachers.

Willis responded that the Government would continue to honour pay equity claims where discrimination against gender had been proven, but said workforces could advance their working conditions and pay through normal bargaining.

The finance minister was questioned in the House about statements offered by National and ACT MPs about the legislation.

Edmonds persisted, “What is more important: saving her Budget, or ensuring women are paid enough?”

Willis rejected the characterisation of the question, and said while women don’t always have equal rights and opportunities, New Zealand was progressive in its pay equity legislation.

Minister for Women Nicola Grigg said the pay equity reform was “positive news for women” - which promoted jeering from the House so loud the Speaker Gerry Brownlee intervened.

Labour today repeated it would get the pay equity process “back up running again very quickly”, according to Hipkins, although it would be a complicated process because you couldn’t repeal a repeal. “But we are committed to reinstating the pay equity process.”