Jason Walls: Newstalk ZB political editor on the Government's pay equity regime changes

The final stage of a bill to increase the threshold of pay equity claims is expected to pass in Parliament.

It'll extinguish 33 active claims, requiring them to re-start under the new model - with the changes expected to impact hundreds of thousands of workers.

This bill has been met with outrage from unions and the Opposition - describing it as a 'dark day for women'. 

Newstalk ZB political editor Jason Walls weighed in on the bill's progress.

LISTEN ABOVE

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Jason wool Zby's political editors with US. Now, hiy Jason,
Good afternoon. So we still don't have a final vote
on this pay equity situation.

Speaker 2 (00:07):
We do not. Indeed, it's still in what's called the
Committee of the Whole House phase. Now you don't usually
hear about this because it's not really that worthy of
reporting as sandwich right between the third reading and the
second reading, and it's essentially a way for members of
the House to query the Minister who's in charge of
the bill on any questions that they have and any
slight amendments that they might want as well. Now, this

(00:29):
has been going on for a number of hours last
actually was I thought this was going to be wrapped
up last night, but the houses in urgency where it
started at nine am this morning, they had a quick
lunch break and it's been going ever since. They stopped
for question time. But we're still in the Committee of
the Whole House phase, so it's really taking quite some time.
But I'll tell you one person who hasn't been here today,

(00:51):
and that's the Prime Minister. He was in Rotruer speaking
at a tourism event at around nine point fifteen am.
And despite question to time being at two p Luxon
wasn't able to make it into the house. Now it's
quite unusual on a Wednesday for the Prime Minister not
to be here and this was noted by Chris Hipkins.

Speaker 3 (01:08):
Thank you, mister Speaker to the Prime Minister. Maybe the
Prime Minister will show up during this one. Does he
stand by all of his governments.

Speaker 2 (01:16):
It's a fair play to Chris Hipkins getting a bit
of a lick on the Prime Minister there, But that
means that Winston Peters was filling in for the Prime Minister,
which always makes for quite a fun afternoon because remember
when Winston is speaking in the House for the Prime minister,
technically that is coming from the office of the Prime Minister.
So although Winston's speaking technically it's the comments can be

(01:37):
attributed to the Prime Minister and no guesses for what
was being talked about today.

Speaker 3 (01:41):
Why did Nikola Willis call the pay equity process a
sign of success last year if it now needs dismantling
and is the government's real motive to balance the books
at the expense of working Kiwi woman?

Speaker 2 (01:55):
So of course it was pay equity now Winston was
quite keen to play the man, not the ball. Excuse
the phrase in this legislation.

Speaker 3 (02:01):
And dare I said, when you start talking about pay equity,
the first thing you must understand where a woman is
concerned is what a woman is.

Speaker 2 (02:07):
Now. Of course that is a reference to the question
that Chris Hipkins got when he was Prime Minister, where
he took quite a while to actually define what he
thought a woman was. But he was more prepared today
to clap back at Winston.

Speaker 3 (02:17):
Is his definition of a woman someone who's paid less
than a man.

Speaker 2 (02:21):
Yeah, so it was a bit of a political football
in the house today. So we keep an eye on
this one. It's still going and maybe maybe maybe we'll
get a third reading tonight.

Speaker 1 (02:29):
Because the trouble is, we've got David Parker's valedictory at
twenty to six, don't we, So under an hour's time.
So what happens if they haven't finished it yet? Do
they pause, do the valedictory, and then come back to it.

Speaker 2 (02:38):
So the pause, do the valedictory, then they break for dinner,
then they come back for it. So I'm all going smoothly, well,
this will still be going on.

Speaker 1 (02:47):
I mean, this isn't the opposition it's best interest to
drag this on as much as possible, right, so it
basically creates more headlines.

Speaker 2 (02:53):
Yes, but I mean the flip side of it as
well is the opposition will argue and they have been
arguing that they haven't got a Select Committee process to
be able to explore these arguments and get some information
from the minister. So this is essentially sort of technically
this the Select Committee process and that's why the chair
who is the Deputy Speaker of the House is letting
this go on so long.

Speaker 1 (03:14):
Oh you know, fair enough, fair enough, absolutely, Now what
has the Maori Party apologized for?

Speaker 2 (03:19):
No, So we talked about it last night, but it
was that post about where they asked their followers how
long they think their MPs will be suspended for. Alongside
the post was an excerpt from the Privileges Committee which
discussed if they should be suspended for seven, forteen or
twenty one days. So this was from the Privileges Committee.
Judith Collins wasn't happy at all about this, so we

(03:40):
asked Debbie Nadi, a packer, about this this afternoon. Have
listened to what she had to say.

Speaker 4 (03:44):
Yeah, I just want to while we've got your attention.
We were aware that an instagram put up last night
created a little bit of tension for the cheer of
the Privileges Committee. We acknowledged that no MP, including the
co leaders, were responsible for that. It is a mistake
that's happened internally, which we're reviewing. So we had sent

(04:05):
an apology to the Cheer to say, no, you're right,
you've got us on it, and that was a mistake
and we'll review it.

Speaker 2 (04:11):
So they're reviewing it. It was an emotional junior staff aga.

Speaker 1 (04:15):
Whoa why are they apologizing for this? Like, after all
of their behavior, this is the least degregious thing that
they've done that sound funny, So are they apologizing for it?
Why is this the thing that they think is so bad?

Speaker 2 (04:28):
I honestly thought they would own this and say that,
oh well, you know, at the end of the day,
this is what's going to happen to us. But you know,
we'll find out in a couple of hours. We've got
our intrepid reporter, a Zaria Howell, who's staying late for
the Privileges Committee, which starts at eight thirty and should
wrap up at about nine thirty, So messing with my
head man, Yes, keep an ear out, to keep an
ear out to z B. For the outcome of that

(04:48):
one will be all across it.

Speaker 1 (04:49):
Hey, by the way, do you reckon David park is
going to get the snark in over the wealth tax
that he didn't get.

Speaker 2 (04:55):
Yes. Absolutely. And I always think that this happens. I
think that these these MPs that you know, I mean,
in David Parker's defense, he did have a bit of
a crack when he was an MP. But I get
so sick of these MPs and their valedictory speeches talking
about what they wish they could have done when you
were the one that was in power. I mean, Grant
Robertson was a particularly bad case when he was talking
about some text changes and I was like, my man,

(05:15):
you were the finance minister. But I think Parker is
going to be a bit better than that.

Speaker 1 (05:18):
I want him to spill the tea. Hey, thanks very much.
Appreciated Jason Wall's news Talks. He'd be political editor.

Speaker 3 (05:23):
For more from Hither Duplessy Allen Drive. Listen live to
news talks. He'd be from four pm weekdays, or follow
the podcast on iHeartRadio.