Minister of Labour Kate Wilkinson announced earlier this week that the Department of Labour’s Pay and Employment Equity Unit (PEE) will be disestablished as part of the re-prioritizing of Government spending currently being undertaken. The change may result in the loss of up to seven jobs. Ms Wilkinson said;

The unit has worked hard researching the causes behind New Zealand’s gender pay gap and that work remains to be a valuable source of information, [b]ut ultimately, achieving the goal of closing that pay gap can’t be realised by having a singular focus on the state sector. This issue is the responsibility of all employers and good employers will work to tackle it

The Handmirror, the blog which earlier this year organised the faxathon for pay equality, has been pointed in its criticism; “of course, because leaving it to employers has worked so spectacularly in the past. and what about bad employers? basically she’s happy to leave them to behave badly.” They also pointed out that that this action has occurred without public consultation. “nobody has had an opportunity to lobby or put their views forward - no women’s groups, no individual members of the public.”
Council of Trade Unions president Helen Kelly said that the decision to scrap the unit “shows an absolute disregard for the thousands of women workers in this country whose work is undervalued simply because they are women”

This is the second time that the National Party has rejected pay equity, [t]hey dumped pay equity legislation as soon as they took office in 1990, and now they have done it again. Both the Minister of Labour and the Minister of Women’s Affairs claim that National has been committed to gender equality since 1972. Their words of support for equal pay for women are utterly hollow.