An ACT of Betrayal

How a woman Minister is denying other women a right she enjoys. 8/5/25

ACT MP and Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden who is on a tax payer paid salary upwards of $300,000 plus expenses and a generous superannuation scheme thrown in, is pushing through a bill, without scrutiny, to make it more difficult for other women to get the kind of pay equity she enjoys, by raising the discrimination threshold.

The reason? A piece of garbage right-wing economic rhetoric about saving money in the public sector.

Van Velden refuses to meet with unions such as th NZCTU despite their requests to discuss such matters, and her bill is being rushed through with urgency.

So tell me… who does this high-handed, authoritarian, undemocractic, refusal to consult on rushed lawmaking remind you of?

Yep… Donald Trump.

Shameful.

Just shameful

Moreover, the fact that van Velden’s bill is being pushed through with no regulatory impact statement done on the effects the pay equity changes could have on the lives of women and the economy, is being perpetrated at the very time her ACT party leader, David Seymour, is pushing his own Regulatory Standards Bill which he says “will shine a light on bad lawmaking.” (RNZ May 6th)

Such hypocrisy!

Van Velden is also stopping 33 current pay equity claims by raising the bar for getting equal pay,(1 News) and female dominated professions will suffer most from her unscrutinised law making.

Take Nursing for example

New Zealand Nurses organisation chief executive Paul Goulter calls her latest move " a blatant and shameful attack on women" and he is right.

The union had at least 10 pay current pay claims across Aged Care, Primary Health Care, Hospices, Plunket, Community Health and Laboratories, covering many nurses and support workers.

A pay equity claim affecting more than 100,000 primary, secondary and early childhood teachers and staff is also among those that will be scrapped by Van Velden’s move.

And what does the Prime Minister have to say about his ACT minister’s Equal Pay Ammendment Bill that comes just a couple of weeks out from the budget?

“It could save the government billions of dollars" (RNZ 6th May)

So make no mistake. This latest government move is all about clawing back money from the public service to pay for the tax cuts, and as I say it is women who will bear the brunt of it through a bill being pushed through by a woman that will deny other women equal pay with men.

The time is long overdue when the amount of pay a person receives is influenced by their sex, yet with the complicity of National and NZFirst, Van Velden’s arrogant attack on women’s rights will widen the pay gap between men and women.

We really, really, really, do need to remove the corrosive influence of ACT from parliament, along with their compliant National and NZFirst mates, at the next election.

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