This Government is taking the women’s movement backwards, ensuring women will continue to be paid less into the future. 

“Instead of continuing the good work of successive governments to close the well-documented gender pay gap in our country, the Government is making it harder for women to get ahead,” Labour workplace relations and safety spokesperson Jan Tinetti said.

“Women have historically been paid less, currently it’s at around 92 cents to every dollar a man earns.

“Government absolutely has a role to play to reduce the gender pay gap over time, and yet this one is about to push through legislation under urgency to stop women from making pay equity claims when they are paid less than their male colleagues doing a similar job.

“Not content with trashing workers’ rights, Brooke Van Velden is now going after women on Christopher Luxon and Nicola Willis’ behalf.

“She thinks teachers don’t have the right to feel angry with the government, but 94,000 teachers who have equal pay claims would disagree.

“This is a Government that is choosing to ignite a debate around women’s bathrooms, while destroying a women’s right to be paid the same as men. I don’t think I’ve ever seen something so gross and backwards in my life.

“Funny how they can find money for tax cuts for landlords and the tobacco lobby but not for women.

“If this is how Nicola Willis is planning to pay for her Budget then I suspect many people are going to let her know pretty quickly that she’s made the wrong decision,” Jan Tinetti said.