Labour Defends Raising Column As C-word Debate Spirals

Thursday, 15 May 2025, 5:19 pm
Article: RNZ

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Debate over use of the c-word is distracting attention from the main issue of pay equity changes, a law lecturer says.

Canterbury University senior law lecturer Cassandra Mudgway who has researched the issue of abuse of female politicians was commenting on the furore that has erupted over its use by both a Sunday-Star Times journalist and Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden.

She believes journalist Andrea Vance was justified in using it to provoke a reaction to her article on pay equity changes.

Meanwhile, Labour has rejected the idea that it was a poor political judgment to reference a column using the c-word in connection to female ministers overhauling the pay equity scheme in Parliament.

Labour's Jan Tinetti asked the Minister responsible a question about the piece during Parliament's Question Time on Wednesday, to which Brooke Van Velden dropped the c-bomb in protest over the slur being used.

Van Velden has defended the use of the word, blaming Labour for introducing the column in the first place.

"I think it's really important that I shone a light on the misogyny that Labour actually did bring into the House.

"They brought it here, I responded."

But Tinetti rejected that, and said there was nothing in the quote she referenced in her question that brought misogyny into the house.

"I deliberately went through that to find the quote that would mention the economic backhander."

It was pointed out to Tinetti that the column in question used the c-word, "that c-word I would never use," she said.

"That doesn't mean to say that people's emotions aren't riled by the fact there's been choices made here with the budget, and future pay cuts have been made to women.

"This has got people very uptight and very angry, and emotions have risen."

She rejected the notion Labour had used poor political judgment by referencing the column, and said the party was having a discussion around misogyny, as well as women taking money off other women in "future pay cuts."

Mudgway told Morning Report the use of the c-word by Vance in her article was "a political choice to use uncivil language" to express her frustration over changes to pay equity.

The "down side" was that it had now led to debate about who could use it which was distracting from the main issue.

"I think focusing on the journalist's choice of words risks obscuring that bigger picture - the fact that thousands of women in historically undervalued jobs just have had their path of pay equity made longer and harder. That's also misogynist harm and we should also be concerned with that."

Online misogyny against women MPs was already widespread and it was pointless to focus on just one article, she said.

As part of violence, harassment and abuse the c-word was often directed at women, she said.

The coalition has criticised Labour for not calling out the column itself, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis taking aim at Labour leader Chris Hipkins directly for his past position of believing men should speak out against gendered abuse.

Hipkins said newspapers make editorial judgments about what they are and aren't willing to publish, "and that's a question for the editors and the people writing that material."

"Given the opportunity to make that exact statement, he did not; instead, he suddenly discovered free speech, and my view is that actually the standard you walk past is the standard you accept," Willis said.

'A lot of sympathy' for van Velden

The chair of Parliament's Privilieges Committee Judith Collins said there was free speech in Parliament and she did not believe the Speaker would take any action to discipline van Velden because "he didn't make any comment on the day".

"But I can understand how Brooke van Velden felt. It's all very well for print media to essentially use that word against women like herself and myself and our colleagues and so many people have said how it made them feel.

"It was used in anger. It was a disgraceful piece of so-called journalism and I understand how Brooke felt so there's a lot of sympathy I think for the way that she has had to take the brunt of this matter."

NZ First MP Shane Jones said it had been the "most extraordinary day of language in the House" and discussion carried over into General Debate later in the afternoon.

Chris Bishop said the c-word had been "thrown around a bit" in the last week.

"I want to read out some c-words that I think apply to the Labour opposition: callous, cruel and cowardly."

He also said the "double standards" and "misleading statements" put out by the Labour Party over the last week were "cruel."

"Because this debate all started because of the actions the government took when it comes to equal pay, and we have heard all sorts of nonsense from the Opposition."

Hipkins took aim at Bishop too, for "jumping on his high horse", and saying Labour needed to do better.

"I can only say I hope he didn't injure himself as he fell off his high horse when it was flying at breakneck speed in the wrong direction.

"Because at the same time he was saying we needed to do better, his own party was posting artificial intelligence-generated images of me when he was saying that we needed to 'raise the tone' of the debate."

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