C-bombs, consequences and ‘chaos’: Unpacking an ‘unprecedented’ week of politics – The Front Page

The c-bomb was dropped in Parliament last week by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden as controversy continues over the Government's pay equity changes. Photo / Mark Mitchell

New Zealand’s Parliament is a “house of chaos”.

At least that’s how Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters has described the debating chamber.

The c-bomb was dropped in Parliament last week by Brooke van Velden, quoting a Stuff column by Andrea Vance criticising the Government’s changes to pay equity.

It has muddied an already dirty debate over women’s pay that is set to overshadow the Budget this year.

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls told The Front Page we’ve never heard this kind of language in the House.

“I think David Carter might have used it accidentally, but using it in a way that Brooke van Velden did – certainly unprecedented,” he said.

The saga overshadowed the subject that set it in motion, the Government’s controversial pay equity reform.

National Party leadership apparently briefed its MPs two days before the overhaul was announced. The changes, passed under urgency through the House, include tightening the thresholds that must be met before a pay equity claim can be advanced.

It also meant 33 current claims had to be restarted as long as they complied with the new criteria.

“Their argument has always been that the original pay equity legislation was too broad, and it led to people like library workers being compared to fisheries officers.

“Because of that, the unions and Labour have been using that to ratchet up people’s pay where it wasn’t based on sex-based discrimination.

" So the Government has clawed it back somewhat and said that we’re going to refocus the law so it is specifically focused on this issue of sex-based discrimination. The unions, Labour and the Greens have jumped on top of this and said that it’s cutting women’s pay. There’s been quite a bit of back and forth over that,” Walls said.

Meanwhile, Te Pāti Māori’s co-leaders have been threatened with suspension from Parliament for three weeks over last year’s headline-making haka.

Parliament‘s privileges committee has recommended 21-day suspensions for co-leaders Debbie Ngarewa-Packer and Rawiri Waititi, saying they should be “severely censured”. It also recommended a seven-day suspension for MP Hana-Rāwhiti Maipi-Clarke.

The recommendation will be put to the House and likely passed. The Greens and Labour dissented from the recommendation, although Labour agreed the MPs’ conduct constituted contempt.

Te Pāti Māori fired back on social media, calling it “the worst punishment handed down EVER in our history”.

“Technically, it’s not the punishment yet. What Gerry Brownlee was very careful to do when he made his ruling was to say that Parliament will have the opportunity to debate this, and it will be up to parliamentarians whether they accept the recommendations.

“He is allowing members to make various different changes to the recommendations of the privileges committee... it is going to be essentially a limitless debate,” Walls said.

Listen to the full episode to hear more about why Parliament’s being called chaotic.

The Front Page is a daily news podcast from the New Zealand Herald, available to listen to every weekday from 5am. The podcast is presented by Chelsea Daniels, an Auckland-based journalist with a background in world news and crime/justice reporting who joined NZME in 2016.

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