Thomas Coughlan: NZ Herald political editor on the latest with the pay equity saga

One expert has labelled this week in politics an 'absolute shambles' amid a series of controversial events.

Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden made headlines after dropping the c-bomb in Parliament after critiquing an opinion piece by journalist Andrea Vance that strongly criticised her pay equity changes in the House.

NZ Herald political editor Thomas Coughlan unpacked the controversies.

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks.

Speaker 2 (00:11):
B ow In is it here? Political editor Thomas Coughlan
joins us now, Good morning, Thomas, Good morning.

Speaker 3 (00:17):
I didn't like your description of the week in politics
when you said there was an excessive amount of pig
headedness on display, which I think I think summed it
up quite well.

Speaker 4 (00:30):
Yes it was. And I'm not the only one I
think who picked up on the fact that the last
week and actually possibly the last fortnight has just been
quite incredible in parliament. You obviously saw the controversy over
the sea word and people's inability to say, well, look,
you know you probably shouldn't or you definitely shouldn't, I
think news that were to describe politicians. But also you

(00:53):
know obviously that the issue that that the word was used,
you know in pursuit of which is pay equity for
underpaid people and women dominated seekers. Well it's you know,
it's a worthy, a worthy issue, but but but positions
just they dug themselves into these positions and couldn't really
move from them. Then you saw the same thing with
to Party Mardi that their harker obviously did break the rules,

(01:18):
and they repeatedly break the rules, and they cannot sort of,
they cannot bring themselves to try and follow the rules
in pursuit of of their own political goals, which are
obviously to improve the lives of Marti and to uphold
the treaty. But also you know that the governing parties
are themselves dug in in the sort of somewhat pick

(01:40):
headed away and their desire to completely throw the book
at to party Marty and not try to work out
some kind of resolution. And it is quite a sad
thing to see because I find one of the great
things about Parliament is the way that you do get
one hundred and twenty odd MPs in there and as
incredible when it's working well, how they can actually often

(02:02):
find quite elegant ways of coming together and working for
out in the interests of the country. And I have
to say, you haven't seen a job of that this week.
It's been an absolute shandle and a lot.

Speaker 2 (02:13):
Of experienced politicians kind of making mistakes. I mean, is
this just politics?

Speaker 3 (02:17):
This is what it's about, trying to get it a headline,
creating a bit of distraction, getting attention, and then just
sort of getting it wrong.

Speaker 4 (02:24):
Yeah, I think, I really think social media has got
a lot to play to blame here. Like I mentioned
in that columnies today, I think to party Maori use
question Time and the House in general almost exclusively to
make social media content which grows up on their pages,
often with quite misleading captions or descriptions of what's gone on.

(02:47):
And I think that's you know, I think that's a
real abuse of quite a powerful democratic institution. But everyone
does this to a certain extent. Everyone's in the House
trying to trying to wind people up and create social
media content out of it. And certainly I think that
digging in over the Sea word had a bit of
a kind of social media aspect to it, where where

(03:08):
the people who were supporting the use of that word
labor who they backtracked on and eventually were sort of
doing it, I think because they quite liked the social
media engagement, no getting out of it. And it's a
shame because you know, like all of us, I mean, we're.

Speaker 3 (03:24):
All there was some pretty serious issues to discuss, really,
weren't they, So we were at all.

Speaker 4 (03:30):
Well precisely there, you know, if you did sort of
put down your phone and and a lot of the
people are steering you from across the house. You know,
you actually can get a lot a lot done. I
think I'm slightly hopeful that when in the Parliament barbariopen
and so the MPs will start socializing it together a
bit more than they do. That actually does have something
to do with it.

Speaker 2 (03:51):
Oh that's interesting.

Speaker 3 (03:52):
Hey, it's budget week this week, and if I think
back to last year, I kind of those core themes
were around cost of living, relief, investment and infrastructure, combating waste,
we was spending, restore law and order, better health education.

Speaker 2 (04:07):
What do you think the themes New Zealanders will want
to hear this year.

Speaker 4 (04:11):
I think they're social The cost of living stuff is
still the year, and Mistler will as a signal that
there might be some cost of living stuff in the budget.
So I'd expect to see something something in any area,
but relatively modest. And I think I think one of
the big questions will be just how modest the budget is.
Obviously the new spending is quite modest, but but Miffler

(04:32):
will it has to the signal that she's freed up
billions of dollars of spending from from various cuts including
this cut to pay equity funding. So I think one
of the biggest things will be actually how much money
is there. Will there be additional money for health help
has got its increase in funding that have got to
the last budget, but but the health system is obviously
in a bit of trouble at the moment, so will

(04:54):
they be chopping it up, like I said, a cost
of living thing. And the other big question as well
is you know the government's positioning this is a growth budget,
economic growth. Well, to do that, you're probably going to
need some regulatory relief or some business tax relief. That's
a pretty difficult political argument to make right now with
everyone struggling the live businesses to the text cuts as

(05:16):
through our text cuts. But it will be interesting there
to see whether she manages to you know, or the
quantum that she manages to deliver to businesses.

Speaker 2 (05:25):
Thank you so much for your thoughts, Thomas always appreciate it.

Speaker 1 (05:28):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
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