Labour defends raising c-word column in House

Otago Daily Times

14-05-2025

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.
The controversial legislation, passed under urgency last week, raises the threshold for proving work has been historically undervalued when making a pay equity claim. The law is retrospective, cancelling 33 current claims affecting 150,000 female workers which would have to be restarted.
Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden last week said the changes would save the Crown money. Opponents say it will make it harder for women in female dominated industries to make a claim.
Labour's Jan Tinetti asked van Velden a question about the column during Parliament's Question Time yesterday, to which van Velden dropped the c-word 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, saying 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."
The coalition has criticised Labour for not calling out the column itself, with Finance Minister Nicola Willis taking aim at party 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.
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."