This government has consistently during 2024 and into 2025 pushed bills through with limited or no Regulatory Impact Statements, no due consideration of advice from government departments, or impact on communities and in fact early this year reduced speaking times at Select Committee hearings to only 5 minutes for organisations attempting to represent the most vulnerable. These things erode our democratic rights.

The government has introduced the Equal Pay Amendment Bill to the house in the past days under urgency. The approach has breached Bill of Rights Act, is inconsistent with the international Sustainable Development Goals requirements for delivery of fair pay for women and is starkly saying New Zealand can’t afford to pay women at pay equity rates, but we can afford to deliver tax cuts to landlords and concessions to some industries such as the tobacco industry.

The impact of this reduction in due process is being paid for by women across New Zealand as they strive to support themselves and their families. The bill limits their capability to pursue claims by extinguishing existing cases and denying back pay just as they extinguished existing claims by Māori through the Crown Minerals Amendment Bill and Marine and Coastal Area (Takutai Moana) (Customary Marine Title) Amendment Bill late last year.

But wait there is more! The Regulatory Standards Bill has just been passed by Cabinet this week to present to the House for its first reading in the near future.

The propose Regulatory Standards Bill has been marketed to us as enhancing and improving productivity and the quality regulation but instead will prioritise corporate interests, individual interests and property over societal interests, safety and wellbeing.

The proposed legislation provides a basis for reducing regulations designed to protect workers from harm and ignores the social and human costs of lowering regulatory standards as irrelevant externalities.

This complex piece of legislation could be rushed through under urgency soon. We could be just as powerless to counter it. Regulatory Impact Statements considering all aspects of legislation would not have been prepared against the bill itself, insufficient advice would have been provided from government departments or the judiciary and most importantly from the public submission process where all spectrums of society could have a chance to have their say.

Proposals for new Ti Tiriti principles fit snugly inside this proposed legislation, so while we are cheering that the Treaty Principles Bill has been put to bed a further affront to our rights could be foisted upon us unawares in the name of improving legislative processes. Complying with the fragile Coalition Agreements is taking first place without respect for the mana of the Treaty of Waitangi.

Writing this just after the 3rd reading of the Equal Pay amendment passing, forcing women of New Zealand to sacrifice their pay equity claims to balance the books for Budget 2025 is sobering. We hope New Zealanders will be made aware of a further injustice waiting in the wings that will walk all over the Treaty of Waitangi, allow exploitation of our resources in the name of private property rights and hamper government’s ability to challenge business on negative externalities in case the government itself will be put in a position of paying compensation for potential loss of private profits.

We are now functioning in a new paradigm where our democracy is being blindsided every day.

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