For more than 20 years, nursing has ranked as the most trusted and respected profession. Nurses, midwives and health care assistants have earned that RESPECT through consistent actions, integrity, and character.  Yet here we are. Still fighting for respect in the form of pay equity after more than one hundred years. 

If I sound hot under the collar, I am!  

This is the last blog before tomorrow’s election. We need to stand up and vote for our right to be equal in all things. Women, and their families, are doing it hard in this country as a result of deliberate political decisions made by the current Coalition Government. Most of our NZNO members are women, and at least 50% of Aotearoa’s population.  

The Equal Employment Opportunities Commissioner Adjunct Professor Gail Pacheco recently stated that pay equity is a fundamental human right. The Commission published a study looking at Pay-Equity-and-Worker-Outcomes-Evidence-Social-Worker-Settlement. It provided rare empirical evidence that pay equity settlements – designed to ensure equal pay for work of equal value – led to higher earnings, reduced reliance on government support, and stronger attachment to employment (people stayed in their jobs). In other words, this is strong evidence that pay equity can strengthen essential workforces and improve outcomes for workers. 

However, the Coalition Government pushed through sweeping changes to the Equal Pay Amendment Act under urgency, without scrutiny in 2025.  The Coalition’s action also removed $12.8 billion from 33 claims involving 180,000 women workers. 

The ensuing ‘Peoples Select Committee’ found that the passage of law breached the Regulatory Standards Act, te Tiriti O Waitangi and the United Nations (UN) Women’s Convention. This has resulted in a formal complaint being made at the UN by the Pay Equity Coalition Aotearoa (PECA) supported by the Council of Trade Unions. A High Court case led by unions including NZNO (supported by the Human Rights Commission), argued that the changes are a DELIBERATE assault on affected women, and sought to clarify whether the legislation complies with the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act. The outcome of this case could have wide ranging implications for human rights and the question of sex-based discrimination in New Zealand. 

One of the 33 groups involved was the Hospice nurses. NZNO lodged a pay equity claim for 750 hospice nurses under the new legislation in September 2025. Hospice nurses argue that they are paid up to 25% less than their Te Whatu Ora-Health New Zealand (HNZ) counterparts despite comparable work and qualifications.  

Just a week ago, the hospice nurses stated that their fight for pay equity is being sabotaged by HNZ as it refused to let its own workers be interviewed to help assess whether the hospice workers were being underpaid. The refusal has stalled not only the hospice claim but may also halt pay equity claims involving nurses at Plunket and Bupa Aged Care, raising serious questions about whether any of the active claims can progress under the Government’s rewritten law. The new law is clear. If no appropriate comparators can be selected, then the claim is automatically discontinued. 

The Coalition Government’s protestations that the new pay equity legislation was more workable is now at odds with the apparent fact that no female-dominated workforce will ever be successful in a claim. Collectively, the hospice nurses are now facing an estimated $15.5million a year loss in pay, and many more millions would be needed to close the gap for Plunket and Aged Care. 

As Sunday Star Times reporter Andrea Vance asked, “was this legal kill switch built in by design?”. I believe it was. The disdainful Coalition governments decision to change the pay equity legislation, by stealth, is a hallmark of much of the legislative change that this Coalition government has wrought bringing a great deal of hardship to the doors of the many.  In other words, it is the antithesis of a democratic government as it has not protected the rights and freedoms of the people.  

 We can change that by going to the polls and voting.  

The people, united, will never be defeated! Ake, Ake, Ake.