Budget Confirms $12.6 Billion Theft Of Wages From Women - Pay Equity Betrayal Laid Bare
Budget 2025 reveals the Government's shame in taking more than $12 billion from New Zealand women.
"This is a mean and heartless Budget that cements in the pay equity betrayal. It exposes the Government's naked theft of wages from thousands of underpaid women to pay for tax cuts for landlords," said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi. "This is the wage theft budget."
"This is a Budget paid for by taking money from care and support workers - $60 million a week - taken from library assistants, social workers and others who had expected pay equity settlements that would see them be paid what they are worth.
"The Government promised to tackle the cost of living - how does taking billions of dollars from the pay of so many underpaid women help them balance their own budgets? It's just another broken promise, and kiwi women are paying for this.
"We call on the Government to do what's fair - sit down with workers, unions, employers and pay equity experts in a proper select committee process and come up with a new framework that can work better for all. This is how a democracy is supposed to operate.
"Instead, we have this harsh new process, restricting the claims that can be lodged, all done under urgency. This has denied women the chance to have a say over how they can get the fair wages they deserve.
On pay equity for the funded sector
"It's appalling that the Government is washing its hands of its responsibility to the community service and iwi providers for pay equity settlements - investing in this workforce is critical to ensure there is sufficient support in place as our population ages.
On health
"The Government will trumpet record health spending, that is a misleading lie. This Government has failed to fund health consistently with increased costs, laid off hundreds of workers, and imposed a hiring freeze on clinicians. Health costs are running far higher than inflation; the Budget only keeps the lights on and does not meet demand from a growing an ageing population.
On other cuts to public services
"This Budget lays out further damaging cuts to public services. New Zealand cannot afford more cuts to our public services and more destructive job losses.
"The public service cuts have already cost New Zealanders dearly and we will see the price of this Government's failure to invest being laid out in coroners' reports, Ministerial inquiries and more investigation by the Auditor-General such as we saw with the recent report into Oranga Tamariki's failing in cutting funding to community providers."
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