Brooke van Velden: Workplace Minister addresses backlash to pay equity claim rollback

The Government is urgently pushing through new legislation - lifting the threshold for pay-equity claims based on gender discrimination. 

The Bill has already passed its first reading supported by all coalition parties and Parliament's moved swiftly onto the second. 

These changes have prompted plenty of backlash, but Workplace Minister Brooke van Velden says there was an appetite for these changes.

"It became clear to me at the end of last year that there was appetite within my Cabinet to do this - and I think it's pretty clear that there was an impetus, so that's what's making the change."

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
The government is halting all pay equity claims. It's overhauling
the system and so all thirty three current claims will
be stopped and we'll have to reapply under these new rules. Now,
this has sparked significant criticism from unions and opposition parties. Today,
Brook van Belden is the Workplace Relations Minister and with
us Now, Hey Brooke.

Speaker 2 (00:17):
Hello Heather, what's brought this on? Well, when I first
entered into government, I made it really clear to the
Prime Minister and to my cabinet colleagues that I wanted
to potentially see some changes to the Equal Pay Act
to make the pay equity system more robust and more
workable and sustainable. It became clear to me at the

(00:37):
end of last year that there was appetite within my
cabinet to do this, and you know, I think it's
pretty clear that there was impetus and so that's what's
making the change.

Speaker 1 (00:48):
How many of the thirty three that are currently underway
will qualify do you think to reapply under the new rules.

Speaker 2 (00:56):
It's really hard to say. Everyone would have to bring
a claim based on the merits of their arguments under
the new thresholds, and so I can't speak for if
all of them would be successful or whether or not
they would have merit, But that's what is designed by
this new system, is that they would have to prove
that there's seventy percent of the workforce are female, that's

(01:17):
been female dominated for ten years and been historically dominated,
and that they can find comparators either within that same
workforce or within the same sector that has a male
dominated profession. So they have been discriminated against, so when
you comparison.

Speaker 1 (01:33):
To them, so it has to be within the same sector.
This will stop the librarians, for example, comparing themselves to
transport engineers.

Speaker 2 (01:41):
That's exactly right. You know, we've seen some claims where
you've got adminent clerical staff comparing themselves to mechanical engineers,
and social workers comparing themselves to air traffic controllers. And
I'm bringing a little bit more reality back to what
we're seeing under pay equity that we want to look
at genuine gender based discrept emination, and that means starting

(02:01):
at home, looking at with your within your own workforce,
and if you can't find that within your own company,
looking at similar companies, and then looking within the industry.
But we shouldn't be fishing for gender based discrimination.

Speaker 1 (02:14):
How much are you saving as a result of this?

Speaker 2 (02:17):
Oh, look, I can't get into specific numbers, but I know.

Speaker 1 (02:21):
I've heard that you are saving more than ten billion
dollars over four years. Is that wrong?

Speaker 2 (02:28):
What I can say is that there will be billions
of dollars of savings, because if.

Speaker 1 (02:33):
You're not denying it rocks. If you're not denying that
it's ten billion dollars over four years, I'm going to
assume it's more than ten billion dollars over four years.

Speaker 2 (02:39):
You know that. Ah, I do know you hear there.
But look, I don't have the ability to say what
the specific budget figures are. What is it? Is it significant?

Speaker 1 (02:52):
Is it the biggest the single biggest saving in budget
twenty twenty five?

Speaker 2 (02:58):
Look, I can't confirm that either. But I can tell
you that there will be savings in the magnitude of billions,
and that there will be a significant reduction in the
cost of the crown. But I also do want to
make it clear that it's not my overriding reason for
doing this. I genuinely believe that there have been errors
in our pay equity system that need resolving. Tightening those comparators,

(03:20):
making sure that we're focusing on genuine gender based discrimination,
not things like changes to inflation, changes to labor market
forces between industries. This is about discrimination between men and women,
and I do support us resolve in that issue.

Speaker 1 (03:34):
If this isn't being done for the budget, why are
you doing it under urgency today? Like if you actually
genuinely had believed and I don't doubt that you did,
but why haven't you done it previous, previously or you know,
after the budget.

Speaker 2 (03:47):
Oh, there's a couple of reasons. It was clear that
you know, I had support at this particular juncture in
time from a cross cabinet to get my work done.
That's also true. But there's also the case that I
want to have two different systems running exactly at the
same time, which is why we're stopping the current claims
and saying you can start again under the new thresholds.

(04:10):
I did believe it would be messy to have some
continue under old thresholds and new ones continuing under the
new thresholds. So that's why we're doing it as quickly
as we can.

Speaker 1 (04:19):
All right, Brook, thanks very much, really appreciated. Brook Van Valden.
Workplace relations minister so heard it was more than ten
billion dollars over four years. Heard it was the single
biggest saving in the budget. She didn't disabuse us of that.
So I guess we're just going to believe that until
somebody does. For more from Heather Duplessy Allen Drive, Listen
live to news Talks. It'd be from four pm weekdays,

(04:40):
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