Democracy Denied and Women Discounted
By Louisa Wall
Chair Tuwharetoa IMPB and Executive Member of Kaitiaki HauoraThe findings of the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity lay bare a troubling truth. The Equal Pay Amendment Act 2025 was not merely a policy adjustment. It was a constitutional failure with real and immediate consequences for women across Aotearoa.
On 5 May 2025, Workplace Relations and Safety Minister Brooke van Velden introduced and passed sweeping amendments to the Equal Pay Act 1972 under urgency in a single day. There was no select committee scrutiny, no public consultation, and no Regulatory Impact Statement. The People’s Select Committee concluded that this approach offended the rule of law and the principles of good lawmaking.
From a Kaitiaki Hauora perspective, that conclusion is not abstract. It goes to our obligation as guardians of hauora. A Te Tiriti-honouring public health system depends on a stable, fairly paid, predominantly female workforce. When legislative process sidelines scrutiny and silences affected communities, it erodes not only constitutional integrity but the foundations of public health itself. The strength of our health system is inseparable from the dignity, security, and equity afforded to its workers.
The Committee heard overwhelming evidence that 33 active pay equity claims were discontinued as a direct result of the amendments. Settlements that included review clauses were rendered ineffective. Women who had engaged in lawful processes in good faith saw their rights extinguished overnight. The Committee found that the retrospective application of the law breached fundamental principles of fairness and legal certainty.
Section 12 of the Legislation Act 2019 affirms that legislation does not have retrospective effect unless expressly stated. The Committee was clear that retrospectivity should be reserved for the most exceptional circumstances. There was no emergency. There was a budget.
Public reporting and Cabinet material confirm that the changes were intended to slow the rate of pay equity settlements and treat women’s work as a fiscal liability rather than a social and economic foundation. The scale of projected savings was approximately 12.8 billion dollars. Finance Minister Nicola Willis publicly praised the fiscal impact. The Committee heard submissions asserting that urgency was used to secure those savings ahead of the Budget.
If that is correct, then the constitutional cost is profound. Rights were curtailed not in response to crisis, but to manage expenditure.
The People’s Select Committee received submission after submission describing the process as rushed, covert, and underhanded. Former senior jurists warned that retrospective elimination of existing claims violated the rule of law principles that underpin democratic systems. Women’s organisations described the absence of consultation as an affront to democratic governance. Even the Ministry for Women was not meaningfully engaged before a policy squarely within its remit was altered.
The Regulatory Standards framework emphasises that good lawmaking requires consultation with those directly and materially affected. That did not occur. Women in female dominated professions, many of whom had invested years gathering evidence of systemic undervaluation, were denied the chance to speak before their claims were cancelled.
From a hauora perspective, income is a determinant of health. Pay equity is not simply about wages. It is about housing security, food security, mental wellbeing, and the ability of whānau to thrive. The women in these roles, including nurses, care workers, librarians, education support staff, and social service providers, are fundamental to the functioning of our public health and social support systems. Māori and Pacific women are overrepresented in lower paid caring and support roles. When pay equity claims are extinguished, the impact falls disproportionately on those already carrying intergenerational burdens of colonisation, racism, and gender bias, a failure that also undermines Aotearoa’s obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It weakens the very systems that support the health of all New Zealanders.
Beyond the immediate workforce impact, the Committee highlighted broader constitutional implications. Without a select committee process, there were no checks and balances, no testing of evidence, and no opportunity to challenge ministerial narratives. Political messaging replaced rigorous scrutiny. Former Prime Minister Geoffrey Palmer has repeatedly warned that overuse of urgency erodes public trust in Parliament. The Committee’s findings demonstrate how that erosion occurs. When urgency becomes a mechanism to avoid accountability rather than respond to genuine emergency, democratic legitimacy suffers.
Minister van Velden has argued that the amendments were necessary to ensure sustainability and clarity. The Committee, however, could find no compelling evidence in officials’ advice that justified extinguishing existing rights. Prospective reform was available. Retrospective cancellation was a choice.
Kaitiaki Hauora calls us to guard both people and process. Guardianship is not passive. It demands that we protect the systems that ensure fairness and uphold dignity. When the rule of law is compromised, those with the least power suffer first and most.
This is not simply about pay equity claims. It is about precedent. If women’s economic rights can be curtailed without scrutiny, what confidence can any of us have that our rights will be secure when politically inconvenient?
The question now is not only for Parliament. It is for women, for their whānau, for friends, and for all communities across Aotearoa.
Will we accept that our work can be discounted when it becomes expensive?
Will we accept that rights fought for over decades can be erased in a single afternoon?
Will we accept being told that fiscal convenience outweighs fairness?
Or will we insist on transparency, on due process, on equity, and on dignity?
The People’s Select Committee has done its work.
Now it is our turn.
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