Nicola Willis claims the 2025 Pay Equity Amendment was about fiscal responsibility. But it wasn’t. It was a tactical betrayal: a deliberate suppression of lawful redress, passed under urgency, in service of a lie. This is not an isolated policy failure. It is one blast charge in a larger structure — part of the controlled demolition of democracy, happening not just in New Zealand, but across the West.
The lie is this: that we cannot afford justice. That the government’s hands are tied. That there is simply no money left for equity, dignity, or restoration.
But this is economically false and morally corrupt.
New Zealand has sovereign control over its currency. It can afford anything that is actually possible — anything for which there are workers, tools, time, and land. The Reserve Bank confirmed this during COVID, when it created billions of dollars to buy government bonds and fund wage subsidies (RBNZ). Treasury confirmed it too (Treasury COVID response).
This same government recently committed $1.5 billion to replace long-range surveillance aircraft (RNZ, 2024) — not because it couldn’t afford to, but because it chose to.
So why are pay equity claims — based on evidence, lodged in law — being cancelled?
Because this government, like many in the post-1980 neoliberal order, has made itself a servant of finance capital. And equity is a threat to that capital’s dominion.
Before we go on, it’s worth noting that ‘finance capital’ is parasitic; not productive. That’s one of the key reasons why Nz has nosedived the last forty years. Because the parasites are dominant.
Paying women fairly — nurses, carers, teachers, social workers — raises the wage floor. It challenges the assumption that some labour should always be undervalued. And most dangerously, it reminds the public that we can choose what kind of economy we live in.
That’s why thirty-three active pay equity claims were terminated without debate. Not to save money, but to kill precedent. To protect a system where wealth is extracted from the underpaid, and public debt is weaponised to justify permanent austerity.
And make no mistake — this is sabotage, not just policy.
It was done under urgency, bypassing democratic process, public input, and natural justice. These workers were denied the right to be heard, the right to be fairly considered, the right to a lawful pathway. This is more than unjust. It is illegitimate.
A government that uses urgency to crush lawful redress ceases to be a steward of the people. It becomes a custodian of capital, an enforcer of hierarchy, a technocratic shield for those who profit from systemic harm. And when a government governs against justice, it forfeits the legitimacy of its rule.
This is not just a pattern in New Zealand. It is everywhere. Across the Western world, we are witnessing the same cycle:
Manufacture scarcity
Cut services
Disempower workers
Blame inflation or debt
Funnel wealth upward
Privatise what remains
It happened in the UK under Cameron. It happened in the US under both parties. It is happening in Australia, Canada, the EU. And here in Aotearoa, the same predatory forces — lobbyists, junk / think tanks, asset managers — are burning the scaffolding of democracy to preserve their profits a few years longer. Think the Winebox, jacked up on steroids, cocaine, and forty years of successful fraud and thievery. That is where we are.
Those are the people in charge.
This is not a failure of leadership. It is a strategy of liquidation. The conversion of public purpose into private revenue. The reduction of the state to a revenue extraction platform.
And Nicola Willis is not a rogue actor. She is a reliable functionary in that machine — clever, smooth, and deadly. Inbred for the job you might say. Part of a corporate and political class who, as lex Luxon loves to tell us, “are entitled”. Willis says she is tired of “slurs.” But what we are tired of is fraud disguised as policy. She deserves worse than mean words that contain facts. We are past tired of lies passed as truth. Of being told that a government which prints billions for military procurement cannot pay a carer more than the minimum wage.
This is not about budgets. It’s about control.
They are trying to convince a generation that scarcity is natural and justice is unaffordable. But the truth is that we are not broke — we are being robbed. And the ones doing it know exactly what they’re doing. They are taking what remains of democracy and collapsing it in slow motion, hoping the public stays too confused, too overworked, or too demoralised to resist.
But resistance is not optional. It is a duty. Not necessarily through violence, but through truth, defiance, and mobilisation. However, these people are so sociopathic, it seems unlikely they will have a “road to Damascus moment” without high pressure.
That starts with education. Through exposure. Through remembering what legitimacy really is — and what it is not.
Governments who suppress justice for the people in order to serve capital no longer rule with consent. They rule through deception and force. And when truth returns, their structures will fall.
We do not want to insult Nicola Willis. We want to remove the veil of legitimacy from what she has done. She is – morally, economically – demonic. Without soul, compass, or compassion.
This amendment is a symptom. The demolition is underway. But so is the rebuild — if we are brave enough to name what’s happening, and fight like hell to stop it, and really get back on track.
Which will require us changing tracks. From lies, to truth
Tadhg Stopford is a Historian and Teacher.
Nicola Willis op ed defending pay parity ambush was pure embarrassment or to use the old adage, her explaining was losing.
It is simply a “save the budget” policy, the evidence is the haste in which it was passed with urgency and without the scrutiny of going through select committee.
Willis had lost control of her finance portfolio.
Good writing. But fine words butter no parsnips. Now, put the argument in simple back-of-the-envelope terms, with simple back-of-the-envelope examples, shrink to fit a 15 or 30-second advert, and go for it. Apparently there’s an election next year. . .
Are our political class dishonest crooks?
Tired of
SOEs sold at fire sale rates to mates who then employ the politicians?
Sick of Regulatory capture by industry, and economic policy written for donors?
Had a gutsful of deliberate scarcity and public finance lies? Our sovereign economy is nothing like a household budgets – we can choose to invest in ourselves. The question is, why do they suffocate us – the answer is, for privatisation and exploitation.
Etc
We just need a no confidence party. No confidence in the establishment. If youre in the Bottoms Up, desperate to save our country, freedom, justice and democracy from the Top Downs who own/run everything, vote for a no confidence MP in your electorate. A trusted known local. They dont need to have all the answers. Just hit the breaks and platform the case.
The classic is Luxon is saying this is not a pay cut for women. If this law change is saving money ( as they first trumpeted) what is then?
As for the abuse Nicola Willis is getting, it’s inexcusable for a number of reasons, one of them being it gives her a distraction to talk about. It makes people forget she is a frequent liar.
“ We do not want to insult Nicola Willis. We want to remove the veil of legitimacy from what she has done. She is – morally, economically – demonic. Without soul, compass, or compassion.”
According to Andrea Vance she’s a c**t which seems at least slightly insulting
thats harsh from Andrea as she is one of the worshipers who rubbished jacinda and now is turning on her new heros .
Why did this legislation need to be pushed through under urgency? What is the factor that makes this poorly thought through rubbish something that requires urgent attention? The answer is NOTHING. There was no reason and this is simply another example of this government trampling over democracy to achieve their ends by nefarious means. CoC are nothing but a bunch of jizz swillers.
The claim it’s for budgetary reasons is just cover. Its simply Actlas idealogy implementation.
The revolutionary urgency is the same playbook that Roger Douglas used to implement at speed his hidden agenda and Trumps dogeing exec orders.
Because like the hate the treaty bill it would never have been passed .
This is what happens when an acolyte from the business round table (oh year, rebranded as the NZ initiative – should be lack thereof) takes control of the government books – unproven neoliberal jabberwocky to the fore (no matter how long the wait for the benefits of this failed ideology).
When this is combined with ACT and their moronic neolib twats we get the disaster that is currently unfolding in this country. When will people learn – there is NO SUCH THING AS THE TRICKLE DOWN EFFECT!
If you think Nicola Willis is not a c**t have a look at the way she treats Barbara Edmonds at question time in parliament,it’s pure disdain because Willis only knows mean girl attack . So my message to Willis is not if the cap fits but in this case if the condom fits and she who protests too much
The Government is not like a business, the object is public service not profit. With our own fiat currency the nation can afford anything for which there are: workers, tools, time, and land. Do not forget energy is needed, something economists do not understand. Nothing on earth happens without anenergy process.
Correct ,governments are elected by the people to govern for all the people not just the 10%
The problem with personal attacks on an individual politician is that the needed discussion and highlighting of the moral and economic facts can now be ignored by the media and voters. The topic of discussion is now about the personal insult.
It’s a very weak political strategy and I’m very surprised when experienced political observers – such as Vance – take it anyway. Possibly an indication of the visceral sense of injustice for many who are close to the political metal.
Brilliant article and excellent economic analysis – that included the governments creation of new money for spending through the RBNZ. The wider global context is also important from Brexit to Bolsonaro to Milei, from Willis to Reeves the phrasing and economic context are identical – spanning left and right political parties and developed and developing economies. As though they all have the same script – listing talking points and economic policies.
Keynes said – if we can do it we can afford it. Meaning if there is under utilized economic capacity and potential then the government can create the money needed to put the unused capacity to work.
Profitability for the private sector requires manufactured scarcity – exactly as the article states. You only need to listen to Scott Bessant complaining that China is making to many cheap products. In other words, abundance and unlimited output is not good for capitalism – when funded through government investment and support.
Because scarcity is not real (as China demonstrates) it has to manufactured and maintained – the electricity and housing sectors are classic examples in NZ.
There is no physical, economic, real world reason that these things should be scarce in NZ but they are, and they are both exceptionally profitable assets.
On point!
Simply put, Aotearoa is being plundered.
We will pay the price eventually.
I’ve just re-read this article – it is exceptionally good and we need more like it. Interestingly, the recently recovered Chris Trotter (he’s emerged from a severe infection of ‘anti-woke hysteriaitis’ – most prevalent among males of a certain age and NZF) penned a piece expressing the same points and with the wry observations at which he is so gifted.
“The fundamental problem with pay equity, however, is the problem very few people are willing to say out loud. Specifically, that paying economically and culturally subordinate classes, genders, and races appreciably less than those above them in the social hierarchy isn’t a bug in our free market system, it’s one of its indispensable features.”
https://www.interest.co.nz/public-policy/133233/low-pay-isn%E2%80%99t-fixable-bug-our-free-market-system-it%E2%80%99s-one-its-indispensable
Calling the amendment a ‘controlled demolition’ of democracy is strong language, but the context you provide makes it hard to dismiss. We need more scrutiny when ‘fiscal responsibility’ becomes a smokescreen for eroding rights.
Karen Willis has no room to whine about people giving her the disrespect she deserves .Can she not remember when in opposition she spent everyday lying about every minister and policy of the last government .She has never been seen as a nice person and really is a very nasty hateful person of limited talent .
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