National, Labour Clash Over Who's Lying About Pay Equity Changes

Tuesday, 13 May 2025, 4:28 pm
Article: RNZ

Jo Moir, Political Editor

The Prime Minister and Opposition leader are in a political feud over who is lying about the overhaul of the pay equity regime.

Last week's surprise law change raises the threshold for workers to prove they've been paid poorly as a result of sex discrimination.

The move will save the government billions of dollars - which would've otherwise gone to increased wages.

Labour's been calling that a pay cut, but National's Chris Bishop, the party's attack dog and previous campaign manager, said that's just not true and the Labour Party has "crossed the line into outright lies".

Bishop issued a press release ahead of his party's caucus meeting at Parliament on Tuesday morning accusing Labour of "lying about our changes to pay equity to avoid talking about their own flawed approach".

The Prime Minister responded to an avalanche of questions on his way to caucus, where he attacked Labour for "resorting to lies and misinformation".

Christopher Luxon has hit out at a social media post that depicted Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden as a Nazi, which was shared by a Labour Party volunteer account before being deleted.

"When you see a Labour Party comparing ministers to Nazis that is not right, you attack the issue but you don't attack the person," he said.

Labour leader Chris Hipkins has called the post "totally unacceptable" and instructed the party to put better checks and balances in place to avoid it happening again.

Luxon has also taken a swing at a column published by a senior reporter in the Sunday Star Times that used the c-word to refer to National's female ministers.

"We saw gendered abuse from media, a senior media writer, who often raises these issues with me.

"I often stand here in front of you talking to you about gendered abuse, yet it was being directed by those people who have raised those issues with us," he said on Tuesday.

Hipkins has not called out the column, telling reporters it is a journalist exercising free speech "and I'm not going to tell them what they're allowed to say".

Luxon said the extent of the savings made through changes to the pay equity laws will be revealed at the Budget next Thursday, and he wouldn't be pushed to publicly release them sooner, saying the government had every right to decide when to do so.

"The reality is when you see a letter going out from Carmel Sepuloni saying, we're cutting women's pay, that is not true.

"We're not getting rid of equal pay or collective bargaining," he said.

Hipkins, however, said that's exactly what's taking place, adding that no new claims would go through before the next election.

"Taking away money that was otherwise going to be going into women's pay packets - no longer giving it to them - that's a cut."

On whether Labour's attack ads were any different to those produced by National about the Opposition, Luxon said in National's case the ads were true.

"When we talk about law and order - Labour's only target was reducing the prison population rather than reducing crime. When we talk about the Greens we do talk about defunding the police because they've said very specifically that's what they want to do."

Both the Greens and Labour deny those claims by National.

Bishop pointed out a debate can be had about "political rhetoric" but believes what Labour is doing goes well beyond that.

Labour has been flooding social media with a series of posts saying National is "cutting women's pay today" citing reasons like, "because they can't make their budget add up, so they are making women pay the price".

Another with a photo of Luxon had the message, "Happy Nurses Day, We got you a pay cut! Thoughts and prayers, Christopher Luxon x".

Bishop wouldn't describe it as defamation but told reporters "I just think we need to be better and I'm calling on the Labour Party to do better".

"All parties use a bit of rhetoric, sure, but I think this crosses the line into outright lies," he said.

Labour said it will unwind National's changes if re-elected next year - despite not knowing the projected cost.

Hipkins said it didn't matter that he wasn't privy to Treasury's forecast costs for the pay equity regime because "we're not going to make our Budget stack up by taking pay off women".

He disagreed the government has been unfairly criticised on the policy.

"I don't think the criticisms have been too strong at all. They rammed this law change through under urgency without telling anybody about it, despite the fact they spent over a year preparing to do so.

"They've misled New Zealanders repeatedly over the last year around issues of pay equity," he said.

© Scoop Media

RNZ

New Zealand's public broadcaster, providing comprehensive NZ news and current affairs, specialist audio features and documentaries.

Radio New Zealand is a Crown entity established under the Radio New Zealand Act 1995. Radio New Zealand News are vital elements in our programming, providing impartial news and information to New Zealanders every day. Radio New Zealand (RNZ) provides listeners with exciting and independent radio programmes in accordance with the Radio New Zealand Charter.

Contact RNZ

• Website - www.radionz.co.nz
• Twitter - @rnz_news
• Facebook
• Link - Contact RNZ