All Access. All in one subscription. From $2 per week
Subscribe now

All Access Weekly

From $2 per week
Pay just
$15.75
$2
per week ongoing
Subscribe now
BEST VALUE

All Access Annual

Pay just
$449
$49
per year ongoing
Subscribe now
Learn more
30
NZ Herald
  • Home
  • Latest news
  • Herald NOW
  • Video
  • New Zealand
  • Sport
  • World
  • Business
  • Entertainment
  • Podcasts
  • Quizzes
  • Opinion
  • Lifestyle
  • Travel
  • Viva
  • Weather

Subscriptions

  • Herald Premium
  • Viva Premium
  • The Listener
  • BusinessDesk

Sections

  • Latest news
  • New Zealand
    • All New Zealand
    • Crime
    • Politics
    • Education
    • Open Justice
    • Scam Update
  • Herald NOW
  • On The Up
  • World
    • All World
    • Australia
    • Asia
    • UK
    • United States
    • Middle East
    • Europe
    • Pacific
  • Business
    • All Business
    • MarketsSharesCurrencyCommoditiesStock TakesCrypto
    • Markets with Madison
    • Media Insider
    • Business analysis
    • Personal financeKiwiSaverInterest ratesTaxInvestment
    • EconomyInflationGDPOfficial cash rateEmployment
    • Small business
    • Business reportsMood of the BoardroomProject AucklandSustainable business and financeCapital markets reportAgribusiness reportInfrastructure reportDynamic business
    • Deloitte Top 200 Awards
    • CompaniesAged CareAgribusinessAirlinesBanking and financeConstructionEnergyFreight and logisticsHealthcareManufacturingMedia and MarketingRetailTelecommunicationsTourism
  • Opinion
    • All Opinion
    • Analysis
    • Editorials
    • Business analysis
    • Premium opinion
    • Letters to the editor
  • Politics
  • Sport
    • All Sport
    • OlympicsParalympics
    • RugbySuper RugbyNPCAll BlacksBlack FernsRugby sevensSchool rugby
    • CricketBlack CapsWhite Ferns
    • Racing
    • NetballSilver Ferns
    • LeagueWarriorsNRL
    • FootballWellington PhoenixAuckland FCAll WhitesFootball FernsEnglish Premier League
    • GolfNZ Open
    • MotorsportFormula 1
    • Boxing
    • UFC
    • BasketballNBABreakersTall BlacksTall Ferns
    • Tennis
    • Cycling
    • Athletics
    • SailingAmerica's CupSailGP
    • Rowing
  • Lifestyle
    • All Lifestyle
    • Viva - Food, fashion & beauty
    • Society Insider
    • Royals
    • Sex & relationships
    • Food & drinkRecipesRecipe collectionsRestaurant reviewsRestaurant bookings
    • Health & wellbeing
    • Fashion & beauty
    • Pets & animals
    • The Selection - Shop the trendsShop fashionShop beautyShop entertainmentShop giftsShop home & living
    • Milford's Investing Place
  • Entertainment
    • All Entertainment
    • TV
    • MoviesMovie reviews
    • MusicMusic reviews
    • BooksBook reviews
    • Culture
    • ReviewsBook reviewsMovie reviewsMusic reviewsRestaurant reviews
  • Travel
    • All Travel
    • News
    • New ZealandNorthlandAucklandWellingtonCanterburyOtago / QueenstownNelson-TasmanBest NZ beaches
    • International travelAustraliaPacific IslandsEuropeUKUSAAfricaAsia
    • Rail holidays
    • Cruise holidays
    • Ski holidays
    • Luxury travel
    • Adventure travel
  • Kāhu Māori news
  • Environment
    • All Environment
    • Our Green Future
  • Talanoa Pacific news
  • Property
    • All Property
    • Property Insider
    • Interest rates tracker
    • Residential property listings
    • Commercial property listings
  • Health
  • Technology
    • All Technology
    • AI
    • Social media
  • Rural
    • All Rural
    • Dairy farming
    • Sheep & beef farming
    • Horticulture
    • Animal health
    • Rural business
    • Rural life
    • Rural technology
    • Opinion
    • Audio & podcasts
  • Weather forecasts
    • All Weather forecasts
    • Kaitaia
    • Whangārei
    • Dargaville
    • Auckland
    • Thames
    • Tauranga
    • Hamilton
    • Whakatāne
    • Rotorua
    • Tokoroa
    • Te Kuiti
    • Taumaranui
    • Taupō
    • Gisborne
    • New Plymouth
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Dannevirke
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Levin
    • Paraparaumu
    • Masterton
    • Wellington
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Blenheim
    • Westport
    • Reefton
    • Kaikōura
    • Greymouth
    • Hokitika
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
    • Wānaka
    • Oamaru
    • Queenstown
    • Dunedin
    • Gore
    • Invercargill
  • Meet the journalists
  • Promotions & competitions
  • OneRoof property listings
  • Driven car news

Puzzles & Quizzes

  • Puzzles
    • All Puzzles
    • Sudoku
    • Code Cracker
    • Crosswords
    • Cryptic crossword
    • Wordsearch
  • Quizzes
    • All Quizzes
    • Morning quiz
    • Afternoon quiz
    • Sports quiz

Regions

  • Northland
    • All Northland
    • Far North
    • Kaitaia
    • Kerikeri
    • Kaikohe
    • Bay of Islands
    • Whangarei
    • Dargaville
    • Kaipara
    • Mangawhai
  • Auckland
  • Waikato
    • All Waikato
    • Hamilton
    • Coromandel & Hauraki
    • Matamata & Piako
    • Cambridge
    • Te Awamutu
    • Tokoroa & South Waikato
    • Taupō & Tūrangi
  • Bay of Plenty
    • All Bay of Plenty
    • Katikati
    • Tauranga
    • Mount Maunganui
    • Pāpāmoa
    • Te Puke
    • Whakatāne
  • Rotorua
  • Hawke's Bay
    • All Hawke's Bay
    • Napier
    • Hastings
    • Havelock North
    • Central Hawke's Bay
    • Wairoa
  • Taranaki
    • All Taranaki
    • Stratford
    • New Plymouth
    • Hāwera
  • Manawatū - Whanganui
    • All Manawatū - Whanganui
    • Whanganui
    • Palmerston North
    • Manawatū
    • Tararua
    • Horowhenua
  • Wellington
    • All Wellington
    • Kapiti
    • Wairarapa
    • Upper Hutt
    • Lower Hutt
  • Nelson & Tasman
    • All Nelson & Tasman
    • Motueka
    • Nelson
    • Tasman
  • Marlborough
  • West Coast
  • Canterbury
    • All Canterbury
    • Kaikōura
    • Christchurch
    • Ashburton
    • Timaru
  • Otago
    • All Otago
    • Oamaru
    • Dunedin
    • Balclutha
    • Alexandra
    • Queenstown
    • Wanaka
  • Southland
    • All Southland
    • Invercargill
    • Gore
    • Stewart Island
  • Gisborne

Media

  • Video
    • All Video
    • NZ news video
    • Herald NOW
    • Business news video
    • Politics news video
    • Sport video
    • World news video
    • Lifestyle video
    • Entertainment video
    • Travel video
    • Markets with Madison
    • Kea Kids news
  • Podcasts
    • All Podcasts
    • The Front Page
    • On the Tiles
    • Ask me Anything
    • The Little Things
  • Cartoons
  • Photo galleries
  • Today's Paper - E-editions
  • Photo sales
  • Classifieds

NZME Network

  • Advertise with NZME
  • OneRoof
  • Driven Car Guide
  • BusinessDesk
  • Newstalk ZB
  • Sunlive
  • ZM
  • The Hits
  • Coast
  • Radio Hauraki
  • The Alternative Commentary Collective
  • Gold
  • Flava
  • iHeart Radio
  • Hokonui
  • Radio Wanaka
  • iHeartCountry New Zealand
  • Restaurant Hub
  • NZME Events

SubscribeSign In
Advertisement
Advertise with NZME.
Home / New Zealand

It's our turn at the front of the queue, nurse tells MPs working on pay equity bill

Audrey Young
By Audrey Young
Senior Political Correspondent·NZ Herald·
5 Mar, 2019 07:57 PM3 mins to read

Subscribe to listen

Access to Herald Premium articles require a Premium subscription. Subscribe now to listen.
Already a subscriber?  Sign in here

Listening to articles is free for open-access content—explore other articles or learn more about text-to-speech.
‌
Save

    Share this article

Video Player is loading.
Current Time 0:00
/
Duration 0:00
Loaded: 0%
Stream Type LIVE
Remaining Time -0:00
 
1x
    • Chapters
    • descriptions off, selected
    • captions settings, opens captions settings dialog
    • captions off, selected

      This is a modal window.

      Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window.

      Text
      Text Background
      Caption Area Background
      Font Size
      Text Edge Style
      Font Family

      End of dialog window.

      This is a modal window. This modal can be closed by pressing the Escape key or activating the close button.

      Autoplay in
      4
      Disable Autoplay
      Cancel Video
      Registered nurse Katrina Hopkinson made submissions at the Education and Workforce Committee on the Equal Pay Amendment Bill 2018. / Mark Mitchell

      A Wellington registered nurse has made an impassioned plea at Parliament in support of pay equity legislation, saying it was time for nurses to be at the front of the queue.

      Katrina Hopkinson, a nurses union delegate at Wellington Hospital, said her work was undervalued and underpaid and was having negative effects on her family, her community and New Zealand.

      "Pay equity for me would make a big difference in our family. We have been living in overcrowded conditions in a leaky house for the past six years," she told reporteres after speaking to MPs.

      "I'm a registered qualified, experienced, skilled ... I'm a really good nurse. I run a unit, a critical care unit. I look after 18 staff, 80 admissions and discharges. I should be able to afford warm, dry housing. I should be able to afford groceries. I shouldn't have to do an overtime shift for a winter power bill. That's the reality.

      "I want my colleagues to be able to see a dentist annually. I want my colleagues to be able to afford housing inside Wellington city. That's what [pay equity] means to us."

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      She has been a nurse for 12 years and has a nursing degree. In a job that is 0.75 per cent of a full-time job she made about $66,000 last year.

      The doctors she worked with got 30 days' sick leave a year. She got 7.5 including domestic leave.

      "We have been waiting far too long for a pay equity settlement," she said.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      "It's our turn at the front of the queue."

      MPs are hearing submissions on the Equal Pay Amendment Bill, which sets out the principles and processes by which pay equity claims can be made in occupational groups which are historically underpaid because they are dominated by women.

      Hopkinson was among the Nurses Organisation submitters.

      Many nurses had to work extra shifts and overtime just to make ends meet, she said.

      Discover more

      Opinion

      Young: Why National agreed to pay equity

      25 Nov 04:00 PM
      New Zealand|politics

      'Carers have suffered for so long'

      18 Apr 06:47 AM
      New Zealand|politics

      Pay rise for more health sector workers

      25 Jul 12:29 AM
      Opinion

      Audrey Young: Time for Ardern and Bennett to show some unity

      08 Mar 04:00 PM

      "That means we are away from home a lot, and we are not able to care for our families, our elderly and our children.

      "We are not able to be there for things like sports on the weekends. We are unable to participate in society like people in other professions do."

      She said banks in Wellington told nurses they should leave the profession if they wanted to get a home loan.

      "How can it be that we, who are bright, educated and qualified professionals, can't participate in society the way others can or even afford to live in the areas where we work?"

      She said people needed to get over the view that nursing was "sacrificial" women's work.

      "Like a lot of people I see my job as a vocation, but it's important professional work for which I have studied to become qualified. I have a sizeable student loan like any other graduate and I pay the same for bread, milk, petrol, clothes and tradesman as everybody else.

      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.

      "There's no discount at Countdown because we are a nice nurse.

      "My children look at the situation and wonder why I would do it. It's not a job that is attractive to them and that's a real problem. If we don't start paying nurses equitably, who is going to want to do it? Who is going to nurse us?"

      Nurses won a significant pay claim with District Health Boards last year, 12 per cent to 15 per cent on basic rates, and they are at the earlier stages of negotiating a pay equity pay claim with the State Services Commission.

      Save

        Share this article

      Latest from New Zealand

      New Zealand

      Emergency services respond to incident near Rotorua

      09 Jun 11:53 PM
      Premium
      Politics

      Greens argue rich list proves case for tax. Act disagrees

      09 Jun 11:50 PM
      New Zealand

      Rural worries grow over copper network deregulation

      09 Jun 11:46 PM

      Why Cambridge is the new home of future-focused design

      sponsored
      Advertisement
      Advertise with NZME.
      Recommended for you
      RFK jnr ousts all members of CDC vaccine panel
      World

      RFK jnr ousts all members of CDC vaccine panel

      09 Jun 11:39 PM
      Fieldays 2025 attracts strong international interest
      Waikato Herald

      Fieldays 2025 attracts strong international interest

      09 Jun 11:30 PM
      Police allege mum used meth before crash causing 7yo son's death
      New Zealand

      Police allege mum used meth before crash causing 7yo son's death

      09 Jun 11:27 PM
      In his own words: Stu Wilson talks rugby with Wynne Gray
      All Blacks

      In his own words: Stu Wilson talks rugby with Wynne Gray

      09 Jun 11:27 PM
      Man admits New Year's Day murder of baby, violent attack on two others
      New Zealand

      Man admits New Year's Day murder of baby, violent attack on two others

      09 Jun 11:26 PM

      Latest from New Zealand

      Emergency services respond to incident near Rotorua

      Emergency services respond to incident near Rotorua

      09 Jun 11:53 PM

      Two fire trucks and a support vehicle were sent at 11.20am.

      Premium
      Greens argue rich list proves case for tax. Act disagrees

      Greens argue rich list proves case for tax. Act disagrees

      09 Jun 11:50 PM
      Rural worries grow over copper network deregulation

      Rural worries grow over copper network deregulation

      09 Jun 11:46 PM
      Police allege mum used meth before crash causing 7yo son's death

      Police allege mum used meth before crash causing 7yo son's death

      09 Jun 11:27 PM
      Clean water fuelling Pacific futures
      sponsored

      Clean water fuelling Pacific futures

      NZ Herald
      • About NZ Herald
      • Meet the journalists
      • Newsletters
      • Classifieds
      • Help & support
      • Contact us
      • House rules
      • Privacy Policy
      • Terms of use
      • Competition terms & conditions
      • Our use of AI
      Subscriber Services
      • NZ Herald e-editions
      • Daily puzzles & quizzes
      • Manage your digital subscription
      • Manage your print subscription
      • Subscribe to the NZ Herald newspaper
      • Subscribe to Herald Premium
      • Gift a subscription
      • Subscriber FAQs
      • Subscription terms & conditions
      • Promotions and subscriber benefits
      NZME Network
      • The New Zealand Herald
      • The Northland Age
      • The Northern Advocate
      • Waikato Herald
      • Bay of Plenty Times
      • Rotorua Daily Post
      • Hawke's Bay Today
      • Whanganui Chronicle
      • Viva
      • NZ Listener
      • What the Actual
      • Newstalk ZB
      • BusinessDesk
      • OneRoof
      • Driven CarGuide
      • iHeart Radio
      • Restaurant Hub
      NZME
      • About NZME
      • NZME careers
      • Advertise with NZME
      • Digital self-service advertising
      • Book your classified ad
      • Photo sales
      • NZME Events
      • © Copyright 2025 NZME Publishing Limited
      TOP
      search by queryly Advanced Search