Has this country's media lost its collective mind?

Someone utters the "c" word, and the media lose it...

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To re-cap:

Tuesday 6 May - Workplace Minister, and member of the Act Party which won only 8.64% of the vote, Brooke van Velden, announced that she had unilaterally scrapped thirty-three equal pay agreements.

Minister Van Velden explained:

"Claims have been able to progress without strong evidence of undervaluation and there have been very broad claims where it is difficult to tell whether differences in pay are due to sex-based discrimination or other factors.

The changes I am proposing will significantly reduce costs to the Crown.

The changes will discontinue current pay equity claims."

She quoted a figure of $1.78 billion per year for pay equity thus far, and hinted at “billions more” to come. (The actual figure was not released by either Minister Van Velden or Minister ‘Noboats’ Willis.)

Van Velden added, with a straight face:

"I also support removing gender based discriminations from our workforces but what I don't support are muddied laws and unclear laws.

So these changes are better for all women who are working where we can genuinely say hand on heart that what they are finding with their claims is genuine gender based discrimination."

So there you have it. An Act minister had single-handedly scrapped 33 pay equity agreements while insisting “these changes are better for all women”.

But Ms Van Velden’s boss, David Seymour, let the cat out of the bag with a bit of boyish bravado, when he revealed the true rationale for his underling scrapping the agreements:

“I actually think that Brooke van Velden has saved the taxpayer billions. She’s saved the budget for the government.”

Which, for a change, was the unvarnished truth.

Ms Van Velden wasn’t destroying the hopes of an estimated 150,000 female workers because pay-equity laws were “muddied laws and unclear laws”.

She was doing it because her Tory sister and Finance Minister, Nicola “Noboats” Willis, had splurged billions of dollars in taxcuts; scrapped heated tobacco product levies for Phillip Morris, and break-fees for a dumped contract with Hyundai to build much-needed new inter-island ferries.

• $14.725 billion personal tax cuts over 5 years to 2027/28

• $2.9 billion over four years for interest deductibility for landlords’ residential investments/speculation

• $1.16 billion work already done plus projected penalty break fee for cancelled iReX ferries

• $216 million lost in cutting excise/tax revenue on Heated Tobacco Products over 4 year period

An estimated $19 BILLION blown by the most inept Finance Minister since Robert Muldoon. $19 billion and nothing to show for it.

The Coalition Cabinet probably took one look at the mess she had created, figured out that the Budget on 22 May was unworkable and scrambled to find something, anything, they could cut.

Furthermore, the Coalition passed a law confirming the scrapping of all 33 pay equity agreements, under Urgency. There would be no debate as it was rushed through Parliament.

The lowest paid women in Aotearoa New Zealand were singled out to pay for Ms Willis’ gross mismanagement of the economy.

The response:

The Union movement mobilised and protests erupted throughout the country. More are to follow.

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And then, on 11 May, Post/Stuff reporter and columnist, Andrea Vance, wrote a piece that encapsulated the anger of probably over half the country. For mainstream media, it was perhaps as radical as it could get:

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Her observations were cutting - but very accurate:

“Austerity is now apparently a microaggression against fiscal conservatives, so we have to call it reprioritisation.”

But the piece that really hit home and angered so many women (and probably a considerable number of blokes!) was this bit:

“It’s a curious feminist moment, isn’t it? Six girlbosses— Willis, her hype-squad Judith Collins, Erica Stanford, Louise Upston, Nicola Grigg, and Brooke van Velden — all united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women.

[…]

The coalition sisterhood trying to sell us the idea that this is somehow progressive.

And the phalanx of female MPs, a generously-paid, traditionally overvalued trade, shafting the underpaid women doing vital, feminised labour that keeps the country functioning.

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.”

It was perhaps the most hard-hitting, scathing, no-holds-barred writing seen in this country for a long time. (Read the whole piece - it’s worth it.)

Badly bruised, the Tories hit back - with a vengeance.

Act’s party strategists, media-minders, and spin doctors (most , if not all, taxpayer-funded) seized on a particular word and decided to go on the offensive. They appropriated feminist terms and Ms Van Velden rose from her seat in Parliament to give a display of faux outrage not seen since, well, the last time Tories engaged in similar performance politics:

"I do not agree with the clearly gendered and patronising language that Andrea Vance used to reduce senior Cabinet ministers to girl bosses, hype squads, references to girl math and c****s. 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."

The word which TVNZ was shy to use wasn’t c****s. It was cunts. While crude to some, it’s a fairly common ‘earthy’ term for a fair segment of the population.

A day later, to drive home the point in case some in the media weren’t yet paying attention, and, frothing with excitement, Ms Van Velden added from her moral high-ground in her Beehive office:

"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."

And the media went crazy. Absolutely, bat-shit ballistically barmy.

Since Ms Van Velden’s “verbal grenade” in Parliament on 12 May, the media had all but forgotten the real issue at hand - this rotten government and an inept Finance Minister scrapping pay equity for around 150,000 women.

RNZ’s Morning Report…

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RNZ’s Checkpoint…

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Leading TV1 news on 14 May…

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And TV3/StuffNews, same day…

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All of a sudden, it was one word. One silly little word that has been used by school kids and older since the Year Dot.

You’d think our media had never heard it used before.

Let me repeat it, for clarity’s sake:

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Are we done sniggering now, media people?!

Stuff’s newspapers seemed more restrained, and the “C word” silliness did not lead on the The Post’s cover.

Which, in a way shows you just how fucking immature we can be as a country. I'd almost suggest we gained independence too early and should still be governed by the British Empire. Like children, held tight to Mother England by some very long apron-strings. Except... Terfland is not much better, sinking into an acrid mire of insular xenophobia and transphobic bigotry.

And of course free-speech warriors like David Seymour joined in attacking not just Andrea Vance, but the Labour Party for not condemning this “sex-based discrimination”.

The media became more bizarre in its narrative to the scrapping of fair pay agreements:

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

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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.

Notice the use of the words “changes”, and “overhauling”?

The unattributed RNZ article had utterly sanitised the shit-storm created by Act’s dumping of thirty-three pay equity agreements, and the betrayal of thousands of hard-working women and their families. To be fair, I wouldn’t’ve put my name to that vacuous RNZ story either.

Nicola Willis’s gormless tax cuts last year delivered miserly amounts for this country’s lowest paid workers:

“Workers will get their first tax cuts in 14 years after the Budget 2024 delivers the Government’s promised income tax cuts. These tax cuts will provide savings of up to $40 a fortnight for many workers, although the lowest income earners and superannuitants will only benefit by $9…”

Nine dollars a fortnight. But even that pitiful amount was quickly gobbled up by increases in other government taxes:

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Pay equity would have given the poorest families much more. The Kiwi battlers that Landlord Luxon and his Parliamentary cronies constantly exploit in their rhetoric:

“I'm on the side of Kiwi battlers out there that are refixing their mortgages after interest rates are through the roof and need to find $700 extra a fortnight to pay for their mortgages. I've sat with families that have actually had to cancel swimming lessons for their kids because they can't afford the groceries. I've sat with families that are trying to digest a $50 increase in rents per week.” - Christoper ‘I’m wealthy & Sorted’ Luxon, Current PM, and Property Speculator

But Ms Van Velden, Ms Willis, their female Parliamentarian colleagues, and the entire National-Act-NZFirst coalition put a firm stop to that.

And the media obligingly took the distraction-bait, effectively giving the government a free pass to escape the torrent of relentless criticism. Act triggered the click-hungry media and the easily-aroused chattering classes, like a master puppeteer handling their marionettes.

Luckily for us, the trade union movement and citizens are not so easily distracted with such puerile childishness.

On 16 May, several hundred people gathered outside Minister ‘Noboats’ Willis’ electorate office in Johnsonville, Wellington.

People were not fooled. They knew exactly why the government had scrapped pay equity:

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RNZ’s Checkpoint did not cover the protest. Neither did TVNZ News. TV3/Stuff covered related protests in other parts of the country - but only as an adjunct to Minister Willis announcing a half billion tax subsidy for film production in Aotearoa.

Te Ao Māori News did cover the protest. Good on them.

Otherwise… *crickets*

When mainstream media pundits; bosses; commentators, et al, express frustration that the public doubt their relevancy in today’s crowded mediaverse, perhaps it is because they undermine their own relevance.

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Meanwhile…

In the rarefied heights of Parliament…

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And for a Laugh-Your-Arse-Off Moment of Absurdity…

In a pathetic effort to quench the bonfire she has created, Minister ‘NoBoats’ Willis wrote an op-ed for ‘The Post’.

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Sadly *cough*, her article is… paywalled.

So many women could have read it… except, well, given a choice between paying a subscription to ‘unlock’ her propaganda-piece or a loaf of bread in the shopping trolley - guess which one was picked?

If only 150,000 women had been given pay equity. They all could’ve read Minister Willis’ piece.

And Last But Not the Leastest…

Many thanks to my lovely wife, Dee, for proofreading and correcting my horrendous typos.

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References

Electoral Commission: 2023 General Election - Official Result

RNZ: Government halts all current pay equity claims, makes it harder to lodge new ones

RNZ: Pay equity legislation could save 'billions' for government - PM

Newsroom: Unions fear pay equity regime could lock out tens of billions of future claims

The Spin-off: Nobody is cutting through government spin like the Act Party

Interest.co.nz: An open letter warns the Coalition Government's focus on balancing the budget could hurt its economic growth goals

NZ Herald: Cost of landlord tax break increased by $800m to $2.9b

RNZ: Kiwirail reveals $500 million spent on axed Cook Strait ferry project

RNZ: Govt set aside $216m to pay for heated tobacco product tax cuts

Treasury: Calendar of upcoming releases

The Post: The girl-math budget that will cut deep, especially for women

NZ Herald: Labour’s Chris Hipkins admits question that led to Brooke van Velden c-bomb was ‘mistake’

RNZ: Labour defends raising column as C-word debate spirals

RNZ: Morning Report episode guide 14 May

RNZ: Checkpoint episode guide 14 & 15 May

NZ Herald: Budget 2024 tax calculator - See how tax cuts affect you and what’s in it for you

RNZ: Taxpayers forking out almost 5% more than last year, despite income tax cuts, tax adviser says

LinkedIn: Christopher Luxon’s Post

RNZ: Checkpoint for Friday 16 May 2025

Stuff: Willis says she ‘persuaded’ ACT to back $500m film subsidy boost, Seymour disagrees

Te Ao Māori News: Pay equity protests outside electoral office of Nicola Willis in Johnsonville

Newsroom: Ministers set to take big pay rises, right after wiping 33 pay equity claims

The Post: Pay equity - Enough with the slurs, now for some facts

Additional

Bluesky: Someone utters the "c" word, and the country's media loses it's mind

The Post: ‘I think there will be a big rebellion’: Pay equity advocates blindsided after years of work

Other Blogs

Emily Writes: The National Party Toxic Boyfriend excuse generator

Gordon Campbell: On The Mock Horror Over Political Profanity

Mountain Tui: Nicola Willis Calls Pay Equity "A Grievance Industry"

Mountain Tui: When A Pay Cut Isn't

Nick's Kōrero: A Four-Letter Word

Nick's Kōrero: Luxon's Ladies.

Nick's Kōrero: Mother's Day

The Standard: The Empire strikes back

Previous related blogposts

No Rest for the Wicked (23 March 2012)

“It’s one of those things we’d love to do if we had the cash” (28 May 2012)

John Key’s track record on raising wages – 4. Rest Home Workers (11 November 2012)

Aged Care: The Price of Compassion (16 November 2012)

That was Then, This is Now #22 – Lowest wages vs Highest wages (31 January 2014)

Nikki Noboats adrift - have the wheels finally fallen off this inept government?

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Acknowledgement: Sharon Murdoch

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