Brooke van Velden says 'c…' in Parliament in response to Sunday Star-Times column
Wednesday, 14 May 2025
Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has said ‘c…’ in Parliament amid a critique of a Sunday Star-Times column that used the controversial word to describe women Cabinet ministers.
Van Velden was asked by Labour Party MP Jan Tinetti on Wednesday afternoon if she agreed with the column, written by The Post and Sunday Star-Times national affairs editor Andrea Vance about the Government’s urgent law-making to change the pay equity regime last week.
The column, the subject of controversy and condemnation by Government ministers in Parliament this week, called the Government’s coming Budget “girl-math”.
“Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c… to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the arse of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet,” Vance wrote.
Tinetti asked van Velden if she agreed with Vance that the pay equity changes were “a curious feminist moment … a historic act of economic backhanding other women”?
After a to-and-fro in which Government MPs contested the appropriateness of the question, and Speaker Gerry Brownlee sought to cut short van Velden’s answer, the ACT Party minister rose to say:
“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….’.
“The women of this Government are hard-working, dedicated, and strong. No woman in this Parliament nor in this country should be subjected to sex-based discrimination.
“I'll tell you who I do agree with. I agree with the former Minister for Women Jan Tinetti, who said that misogynistic abuse against women in public office was ‘an indictment on our society.’
“I actually think it's very curious — and it's a very curious feminist moment — when a former Minister for Women repeats parts of a clearly misogynistic article in this House.”
Van Velden afterwards told reporters she was standing up for herself and her women Cabinet colleagues.
“We are here to do our job, to serve the public, but we expect a high level of journalistic integrity and standards. I want people to report the news, not their personal opinions and emotions.”
Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said the use of such language was “never appropriate”.
“I've seen some bad times in this house, but this is one of the lowest I've ever seen.
“When you go to that sort of standard language, nothing is beneath you after that, is it?”
Labour leader Chris Hipkins earlier said the Government was objecting to “the exercise of free speech by journalists and political commentators”.
“I'm not going to tell them what they're allowed to say.”
Sunday Star-Times owner Stuff Group has stood by the column.
Joanna Norris, the managing director of Stuff masthead publishing, said the pay equity legislation had “caused robust debate on all sides”.
“This is not the first time our editors have allowed the use of this word - it is carefully reviewed by experienced editors and on this occasion it was decided it was acceptable usage in the context of this column.
“Andrea Vance, and her editor Tracy Watkins, are two of the country’s foremost political writers and since the column was published, have received both strong support for - and criticism of - the column's views and the manner in which they were expressed.
“Stuff has published a spectrum of commentary on the pay equity issue, including a reply to the column this week from the Minister of Finance.”