Report shows National, Act and NZ First betrayed NZ women.

TEU Media Release

A scathing report has been released today from a group of 10 former MPs and Ministers from across the political spectrum who came together to form the People’s Select Committee on Pay Equity.

Amy Ross, internationally recognised expert on pay equity, provided advice to the Committee in 2025 and in 2026 became the Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary of Te Hautū Kahurangi | Tertiary Education Union. “As an expert on pay equity, what shocks me is that none of the changes to our pay equity law were supported by coherent evidence or reasoning. Today's report shows that the coalition rammed through changes deliberately designed to render the pay equity system ineffective, destroying our pathway to gender equality and our international standing as world leaders. 

“The recommendations are powerful; they provide our country with a clear way forward to ensure that all work is fully recognised and fairly paid. The TEU calls on all political parties to commit to implementing the recommendations.

"TEU welcome the report and congratulates retired TEU member, and Chair, Marilyn Waring for convening the People's Select Committee. The former MPs who worked on the select committee have served New Zealanders by upholding democracy when our government has abjectly failed to do so. The voices of our people are captured.

“When the law changed, thousands of our TEU members, working in university libraries and in administration roles, were in the midst of their pay equity claim - they were betrayed by the National Government and their coalition partners. We are thrilled to see a recommendation in the report that the changes made in 2025 should be urgently repealed and claims like those of our members, reinstated.

"I will be calling on the heads of all our tertiary institutions, to support the recommendations in the People's Select Committee so that we, as a united sector, can ensure our librarians and administrators are paid fairly. This is what pay equity means, it’s all it has ever meant," Ross said.

For further comment -
Amy Ross, Te Pou Ahurei | National Secretary - 027 277 8126