In 2020, National MPs celebrated the passing of the Equal Pay Amendment Act. Today, they are backing a massive overhaul of the law that will see existing pay equity claims scrapped and raise the threshold for bringing new ones.
As the government pushed through sweeping changes to New Zealand’s pay equity regime that will extinguish existing claims and make the criteria for bringing new ones much stricter, Nicola Willis faced media, flanked by three other female National MPs. The finance minister denied the move was to plug a gap in the forthcoming budget – contradicting her Act Party coalition partners. Act leader David Seymour had said his deputy Brooke van Velden, who is in charge of the amendments as workplace relations minister, “has saved the taxpayer billions. She’s saved the budget for the government.” Willis, meanwhile, said the changes were about “ensuring we are clear, transparent, and fair to ensure that where those claims are made they relate to gender-based discrimination and that other issues to do with pay and working conditions are raised during the normal employment relations process”.
The amendments, which are likely to be passed today under urgency, will undo previous amendments made to the Equal Pay Act by the Labour government in 2020, with the support of all parties in parliament. At the time, National MPs were highly critical of the delays in passing the legislation – Labour had ditched a similar bill introduced by National in 2017 and then, in 2018, failed to support a member’s bill in the name of National MP Denise Lee, before introducing the Equal Pay Amendment Bill in October 2018.
A trawl through Hansard shows what some of the current coalition MPs have said about pay equity over the years.
Louise Upston (National), August 3, 2017, joint working group on pay equity principles recommendations and legislation
“The reality is we have a piece of legislation that enables both equal pay and pay equity, and, as the member has just said, over 55,000 New Zealand women have benefited exactly from our government’s work on pay equity.”
Judith Collins (National), November 8, 2017, reinstatement of business in first sitting of new parliament
“Why is it that New Zealand women are now going to be asked to wait for years more for the new legislation to come into the House? It’s taken two years of intensive negotiations and intensive consultation right across New Zealand, right across business, right across employers, and with the unions as well – it’s taken two years. And what we’re seeing today is that this new Labour-led government is happy to say to New Zealand women, ‘Go take another two years, honey. Go take another two years because you’re not going to be man enough to stand up for yourself.’
Upston, April 4, 2018, first reading of Employment (Pay Equity and Equal Pay) Bill, a member’s bill in the name of National’s Denise Lee
“I don’t think there would be any member of parliament in this House that wants to see further delays in real solutions and real pay increases for real New Zealand women. Unfortunately, by members opposite not supporting this legislation to go forward to the select committee, that’s exactly what’s happening.”
Parmjeet Parmar (then National, now Act), October 16, 2018, first reading of the Labour-led government’s Equal Pay Amendment Bill
“The whole world is actually working towards this issue that is to reduce the gender pay gap, and National has shown they are committed.”
Upston, October 16, 2018, first reading of Equal Pay Amendment Bill
“I’m very pleased to stand and speak in this first reading of the Equal Pay Amendment Bill and say that the National Party will be supporting this legislation in the first reading and on its way to select committee.”
Willis, June 24, 2020, second reading of Equal Pay Amendment Bill
“National supports the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. We support it for the very good reason that we think that gender should not be the basis for determining the pay that someone gets and that men and women deserve not only equal pay for doing the same work but equity in the payment for the work that they do based on the value of that work rather than the gender of the people doing it. This is what this bill sets out to achieve and it establishes mechanisms which allow people to make claims where pay equity and equal pay principles are not upheld.
“So when my two daughters grow up, how will we know whether this bill has actually been successful? Well, we know that this bill’s been successful when we actually see that these sorts of claims are no longer necessary, because we’ve established a framework in which people don’t want to have to be doing compensation and that they pay people fairly to begin with. But we will also see that that gap between the pay of men and women, which currently sits at about 9.3%, is reducing in real time.”
Willis, July 22, 2020, third reading of Equal Pay Amendment Bill
“I’m proud to stand in this House tonight and say that National will support this final reading of the Equal Pay Amendment Bill. And I’m proud that our party has contributed to crafting this legislation and bringing it to the House. We support the simple concept that people should be paid the same for the same work, regardless of their gender, and we support the equally important concept that, if someone has been doing work and there are reasonable grounds to believe that that work has been historically undervalued based on their gender and has been underpaid because of that, they should be able to make a pay equity claim.
“I want to put on the record that we are hopeful this process works as well as possible for all parties to it. We want to see women being able to progress their claims for pay equity as easily as possible, and we want to see employers being engaged in good faith in that process to address claims.
“This is an important moment. Equal pay matters. We still have an outstanding gender pay gap in this country. We all, I believe, want to live in a country and a world in which men and women have equal opportunities, are equally rewarded for their work, and are able to progress and fulfil their own potential to the maximum extent possible. This legislation provides a further step in the right direction, and I commend it to the House.”
Erica Stanford, July 22, 2020, third reading of Equal Pay Amendment Bill
“The dreams I have for my daughter and my grandchildren – one day, when I have them, hopefully – is that they will grow up in a country where the work that they do is equally valued and compensated equally to that of their male counterparts. This bill sets out the framework that we will achieve that outcome.”
Willis, May 27, 2024, having disestablished the pay equity taskforce that the previous National government set up in 2015
“The government remains committed to upholding its obligations under the Equal Pay Act and continues to have funds set aside, including in tagged contingencies for settlements in both the public and funded sectors.”
Upston, May 6, 2025, first reading of Equal Pay Amendment Bill 2025
“This is where things went astray with the 2020 legislation, because, all of a sudden, the government in power wanted to wrap a whole bunch of other issues into a piece of legislation that removed it from its core purpose, which was about pay equity.”
