Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden has become the first MP to use the word c*** in the House of Representatives when she repeated it after former minister for women Jan Tinetti asked about a controversial opinion column in relation to the Government’s changes to the pay equity process.
The column by national affairs editor Andrea Vance, which appeared in the Sunday Star-Times and The Post, accused Finance Minister Nicola Willis of partaking in “girl math” with the move to scale back the pay equity process last week.
In the column, she referred to six current ministers “united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women”.
Vance wrote: “Turns out you can have it all. So long as you’re prepared to be a c… to the women who birth your kids, school your offspring and wipe the a*** of your elderly parents while you stand on their shoulders to earn your six-figure, taxpayer-funded pay packet.”
Parliamentary debate hears outrage after a columnist used the c-word in an article about the Government ministers. (Source: 1News)
During Question Time today, former minister for women Jan Tinetti asked van Velden about the column and whether she agreed with this quote: “It is a curious feminist moment, isn’t it? Six girlbosses — Willis, her hype-squad Judith Collins, Erica Stanford, Louise Upston, Nicola Grigg, and Brooke van Velden — all united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women.”
In response, van Velden said she could not find a single sentence in the column that she could agree with.
“I do not agree with the clearly gendered and patronising language that Andrea Vance used to reduce senior Cabinet ministers to girl bosses, hype squads, references to girl math and c****s. The women of this Government are hard working, dedicated and strong. No woman in this country, nor in this country, should be subjected to sex-based discrimination.”
She then criticised Tinetti for quoting a “clearly misogynistic” column, calling it a “very curious feminist moment”.
Tinetti had spoken about her concerns for gender-based abuse and vitriol targeting female parliamentarians during her tenure as Minister for Women.
Speaker Gerry Brownlee did not interrupt or sanction van Velden but offered some advice for future conduct in the House.
“Let me make it as clear as I can, while the minister was giving an answer that was quoting commentary from a news article, it may have been better to refrain from one word that was fully expressed.”
Van Velden took to social media soon afterwards to explain the comments she made in Parliament.
After the debate, Deputy Prime Minister Winston Peters said it was some of the worst language he had encountered in his time in Parliament.
“When you go to that sort of standard of language, nothing is beneath you after that, is it?”
However, ACT leader David Seymour said van Velden had provided a “very important message”.
“Brooke held up a mirror to some people behaving badly, and I don’t think those people liked what they saw. She showed that actually, women hit back, as they should in these circumstances, the way she’s been maligned in recent days.”
Managing director of Stuff Masthead Publishing, Joanna Norris, said in a statement that the column and the C-word were “carefully” considered as part of “robust” debate around the pay equity legislation. “Stuff has published a spectrum of commentary on the pay equity issue, including a reply to the column this week from the Minister of Finance.
“The issue of sex based discrimination, and the Government’s changes to pay equity legislation under urgency, have caused robust debate on all sides.
“This is not the first time our editors have allowed the use of this word — it is carefully reviewed by experienced editors and, on this occasion, it was decided it was acceptable usage in the context of this column.
Norris said Vance, and her editor Tracy Watkins, “have received both strong support for — and criticism of — the column’s views and the manner in which they were expressed”.
Tinetti told 1News the focus of her question to van Velden was to highlight that “women were taking pay away from women”, adding that she deliberately chose a quote from the column that was not misogynistic.
“I feel what needs to be focused on here is that woman are having their future pay cut.”
Asked about van Velden’s use of the C-word, Tinetti said: “I do not like that word, it is not something I would choose to use.”
