Labour Party Facebook page reposts - then deletes - image of Brooke van Velden as Nazi
The original post was made after the Government changed thresholds that allow for pay equity claims to be made by female-dominated workforces, reform that van Velden is leading.
Labour general secretary Rob Salmond, who deemed the image 'inappropriate', said a leader in Labour's Whangaparāoa volunteer team deleted the post on the same day it was posted.
'We agree with our local team's decision to immediately remove the content, as the image was not appropriate.'
Labour leader Chris Hipkins has been approached for comment.
Van Velden told the Herald the post showed Labour had 'lost all perspective' and had resorted to 'nasty personal attacks'.
She noted the post was particularly offensive given her grandfather had lived under Nazi occupation. In several speeches in the House, van Velden had referenced the atrocities witnessed by her ancestors living in Nazi-occupied Holland.
In a statement, van Velden reinforced the Government was not reducing anyone's pay and was not removing equal pay legislation, which ensured women were not paid less than a man for the same job.
'This is not changing, this Government is committed to women.
'We have improved the pay equity system to give greater confidence in genuine equity issues and correctly identify them so that we have a robust, workable and sustainable system for all New Zealanders.'
Van Velden announced the legislative changes on Tuesday last week, stating they would be rushed through the House under urgency as she argued the pay equity claim process needed adjusting so current claims were judged consistently.
The 33 claims currently being progressed would have to restart under the new framework.
The announcement prompted a snap protest followed by several more on Friday as hundreds opposed the Government tightening the claim criteria and changing the legislation without consultation.
Many accused van Velden and Finance Minister Nicola Willis of making the changes to improve this year's Budget. The Government was set to save billions as a result of the reform.
Amid the condemnation from Opposition parties and unions, Government MPs claimed to have fielded questions from members of the public concerned the changes would impact equal pay arrangements.
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
RNZ News
an hour ago
- RNZ News
Elon Musk's online war with Republicans leaves Donald Trump to wonder if he's created a monster
By Brad Ryan, ABC in Washington Elon Musk has left his position at DOGE, but remains a political player. Photo: AFP / Allison Robbert Analysis -The anger is taking many forms on Elon Musk's X account. Multiple graphs illustrating the growing national debt. A meme showing a microscopic pair of scissors with the words: "Republicans getting ready to reduce the size of government." Even a sword-wielding Uma Thurman from the movie Kill Bill. (Geddit?) It all represents a stunning tburst over Donald Trump's "big, beautiful bill" just days after Musk's departure from his government cost-cutting gig . But the tweet that Musk has chosen to pin to the top of his feed might be the one that most troubles Trump. It's a repost of another X user's collection of reader comments from the Fox News website. It shows a lot of support for Musk among the network's MAGA-loving audience. One article has attracted almost 8000 comments at time of writing, and it takes a lot of scrolling to find many that don't back Musk. A lot of them purport to be from Trump supporters who have taken Musk's side of this argument. It's by no means a perfect poll, but it could give Trump pause for thought. Musk's anger doesn't just manifest in tweets. His time as Trump's "first buddy" earned him a massive MAGA following. He now has sizeable influence over the Americans that Trump needs most: the Republican voters who didn't just put him back into power, but also handed him vital, and vulnerable, Republican majorities in both houses of Congress. Musk justified his controversial work at DOGE with arguments about the need to bring down the national debt. He often pointed to the fact the US pays more interest on its debt than it spends on defence. But he lamented that he couldn't do more to deal with it. DOGE's cruelling and culling of government jobs and departments achieved about $US180 billion in savings, according to its own estimates. That would equate to 9 percent of his early target of $US2 trillion. And those numbers are rubbery and widely viewed with scepticism. Outside fact-checks of DOGE's online "wall of receipts" resulted in reductions to its posted savings claims, and there are disputes over others that remain uncorrected. And a lot of the cuts could still be reversed by the courts, shrinking the savings figure further. Musk insists DOGE's ongoing work, in his absence, means the savings figure will continue to grow. But he recently argued that DOGE was an advisory board rather than "the dictators of the government", so the savings achieved were "proportionate to the support we get from Congress, and from the executive branch of the government in general". Now Congress - at the behest of the executive, i.e. Trump - is considering legislating spending and tax cuts which would undermine all those money-saving efforts. The most recent analysis, from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office, found the One Big Beautiful Bill Act would increase budget deficits by $US2.4 trillion over the next decade. It would also increase the debt ceiling, allowing the US to borrow trillions of dollars more than it currently can. Elon Musk in the Oval Office with his son X Æ A-Xii as President Donald Trump signs executive orders in March 2025. Photo: AFP / Jim Watson Trump's support for the bill - which is full of all sorts of MAGA priorities - has been absolute. He's described it as "arguably the most significant piece of legislation that will ever be signed in the history of our country". His demand that Republicans support it means some apparently did without even reading it. Hard-right Republican and hardcore Trump fan Marjorie Taylor Greene admitted she didn't know what was in it when she voted for it, and voiced regret after discovering it would curb states' power to regulate AI. "Full transparency," she said, "I did not know about this section … I would have voted NO." Full transparency, I did not know about this section on pages 278-279 of the OBBB that strips states of the right to make laws or regulate AI for 10 years. I am adamantly OPPOSED to this and it is a violation of state rights and I would have voted NO if I had known this was in… Some of Trump's Republican foot soldiers have been running the line that Musk's anger is just business. House Speaker Mike Johnson suggested it was all about the bill's termination of tax breaks for buyers of electric vehicles. But the angry noise on Musk's X platform has so far not been matched on Trump's Truth Social. At time of writing, he's limited his online response to a somewhat cryptic repost of Musk's tweet announcing his departure from DOGE. He knows a public brawl with Musk is what Democrats have been dreaming about. But he also knows all about the power of money in politics. Musk, the world's richest man, sank hundreds of millions of dollars into getting Trump re-elected. He's threatened in the past to fund challengers to sitting Republicans, including from within the party, if they displease him. He recently said he was looking to rein in his political spending, but added: "If I see a reason to do political spending in the future, I will do it." The midterm elections are only 18 months away. All members of the House of Representatives, and a third of the Senate, will face an election battle. Trump wants not only to retain the slim Republican majorities in the House and Senate but also to make sure those Republicans are cooperative with his MAGA agenda. Musk's been pumping up those who aren't - retweeting Republicans who are voting against the Big Beautiful Bill. He could now see a reason to restart political spending, and try to get more of them into Congress and in Trump's way. And even if he doesn't dig into his billions, the Musk-Trump bromance helped build Musk's influence in the MAGA world. It's something Trump may come to regret. - ABC
1News
an hour ago
- 1News
Inland Revenue outlines focus after Budget funding boost
Inland Revenue (IR) will intensify its tax compliance and collection efforts following a significant funding boost in Budget 2025, with expectations of strong returns on investment. The Government had allocated new additional permanent funding of $35 million a year for Inland Revenue and also continued funding of $26.5 million a year from Budget 2022 that was due to run out in June. 'Along with the $29 million per year that was allocated in Budget 24, this is a significant funding boost and is recognition of what we do and the excellent results we've had so far this year,' Inland Revenue commissioner Peter Mersi said. Mersi said the increased funding meant the majority of taxpayers who met their obligations could continue to be confident IR would find those who were not. He said IR was expected to return $4 for every dollar invested in the first year and $8 for every dollar from the second year. ADVERTISEMENT Cold coming, PM's press secretary scandal, science of sleep (Source: 1News) "This is in addition to increasing the return from last year's compliance funding boost by $8 from July 1. 'While we do that, IR also must maintain its base level of tax collection and debt reduction." The increased funding would be invested into new activities, Mersi said. These would include further increasing audits and debt collection in high risk/value areas, investigations into specific sectors such as property, organised crime, the hidden economy and trusts, as well as the improved use of data and intelligence to speed up the identification and targeting of discrepancies and pursuing debt. The process of collecting data from third parties such as banks would shift to an automated process from a manual approach, while more targeted compliance activity measures would be investigated. Additional staff would be hired for this work and systems and technology would be used in more effective ways, Mersi said. ADVERTISEMENT Increase investment will 'accelerate returns' - Watts Revenue Minister Simon Watts. (Source: Q+A/Irra Lee) On the increased funding in the Budget, Revenue Minister Simon Watts said hard-working Kiwis who paid their taxes were "being ripped off by tax cheats who deliberately evade their obligations". "New Zealand's tax debt rose to $8.5 billion by the end of 2024. At a time when the Government is carefully managing every dollar to fund the essential frontline services Kiwis rely on, it's essential we crack down on those who are not paying their share of tax." Watts said the increased investment would accelerate returns already being seen from the compliance funding in last year's Budget. "In the year to March 2025, Inland Revenue collected almost $3 billion of overdue debt and is on track to collect more than $4 billion by June 30."
The Spinoff
2 hours ago
- The Spinoff
What was Chris Bishop thinking? An earnest attempt to figure it out
It's an objectively crazy way to behave. But I kind of get it, writes Duncan Greive. This time last week, Chris Bishop was having an awesome day. A massive NZ music fan, heading to the big awards show – a great night ahead of him. I saw him there, standing alongside his colleague Paul Goldsmith, next to the bar during the intermission. Bishop looked like he was having an excellent time, though to be fair everyone did – the awards are huge and informal and a great night out. As we now know, the fun wouldn't last for Bishop. Within a couple of hours he'd muttered derisively during a performance by Stan Walker and had a confrontation with Don McGlashan, a singer and songwriter so universally beloved that both Newstalk ZB and RNZ, which agree on very little, describe him as a national treasure. By the following day, Bishop's comments had become the biggest news story to emerge from the awards in years, and Bishop no doubt deeply regrets not keeping his opinions to himself. In the week since, he has stood by his statements on the night but acknowledged, both to media and to the prime minister, that he 'should have kept my thoughts to myself'. Bishop confirmed to RNZ that he'd said something about 'performative acclaim' during Walker's performance and referred to it as 'a load of crap'. It was poor timing. It was also just plain wrong. Walker's performance was one of the highlights of the night, a soaring ballad (he is becoming New Zealand's Celine Dion – a huge compliment, to be clear) which really took flight when the room filled with supporters waving Toitū te Tiriti flags, prompting an outpouring from the room. This seems an open and shut case, and I'm not here to defend Bishop – that would be almost as foolish as his behaviour – but there are mitigating circumstances which feel material to the current public prosecution. 1. Toitū te Tiriti is a complex organisation Stuff political editor Luke Malpass once adroitly observed that the Green Party likely scoop up a non-trivial proportion of its votes from people who feel a general dread about the climate and environment, and feel marginally better by giving the party their vote, and don't look much deeper into the policy platform or what they most emphasise. There's a similar phenomenon at work with Toitū te Tiriti. It's both a phrase and an organisation, a sentiment and closely allied with a specific parliamentary party. The phrase is well-supported, with more than seven in 10 New Zealanders endorsing the idea of 'harmonious race relations through honouring te Tiriti', according to polling by the Human Rights Commission earlier this year. At a guess, Bishop is one of them, as among the most prominent and unambiguous members of the liberal wing of the National Party. However, Toitū te Tiriti is also an organisation, one which achieved an awe-inspiring level of support during the hīkoi mō te Tiriti earlier this year. The organisation created a vast, countrywide response to both the Treaty principles bill and what supporters perceive as a large number of policies which go against the spirit of te Tiriti. But while the support for that general idea is broad and will necessarily include voters for a number of parties, the organisation Toitū te Tiriti has deep ties to Te Pāti Māori, most notably through one of its key organisers, Eru Kapa-Kingi, a teaching fellow at the University of Auckland who stood unsuccessfully for parliament in the 2023 election on Te Pāti Māori's list. Supporting the phrase is one thing, supporting the organisation another, and knowing how to practically apply it across society and politics is, to put it mildly, complicated. This is likely what Chris Bishop was trying and failing to express in the moment. 2. Arts and culture has a near total lack of representation for right wing politics Labour's Willie Jackson is not wrong in his statement on the Chris Bishop affair. 'Look around the world, people have been doing that for years. Whether it's Bob Marley, Bono, whatever, it's been happening, it's not like something new. He should talk to his Shihad heroes, 'cause the lead singer there's got pretty good politics too.' The phrase 'good politics' is telling there, but likely to be something the vast bulk of the music awards crowd endorses. I am old enough to have been to music awards since Helen Clark was prime minister. She received cheers and appeared on stage, with (mostly) undivided affection from the crowd. Over the years the likes of Chlöe Swarbrick and Jacinda Ardern, before and after their elevation to party leadership, have been largely lauded while in attendance. One notable exception was Homebrew's Tom Scott, who condemned Ardern for not visiting Ihumātao during the occupation – essentially a criticism of a centre left prime minister from the left, asking for a more explicitly leftist position. Bishop is manifestly a very genuine fan of New Zealand music. He regularly goes to shows, buys t-shirts, advocates for it whenever he can. He attended multiple dates on the final Shihad tour. He is its most prominent and present champion within the National party, perhaps the biggest fan the party has ever had. He will also not be unaware of the general politics of not only musicians, but arts and culture makers and workers more broadly. But he shows up and attempts to present an acceptable face of a party and a broader worldview which is anathema to many fans and almost all makers in the rooms he frequents. Where culture and politics collide What likely boiled over in Bishop is the tension which is always present and rarely voiced in these discussions. Music, TV, film, arts and culture in New Zealand receives a significant amount of support from central and local government. It's not enough, and it's not a huge amount compared to some other countries. But it comes from all taxpayers and ratepayers, which naturally includes many people who hold differing political views. Who might believe in toitū te Tiriti (the sentiment), but not the particular ambitions and ties of Toitū te Tiriti (the advocacy organisation) as a microcosm of the broader goal. So Jackson is right, music has always been political. And Bishop was wrong: neither Walker's performance nor the emotional heft of the arrival of the Toitū te Tiriti flags and supporters in the room was 'a load of crap'. It was the undeniable emotional heart of the evening. But the Aotearoa Music Awards are publicly funded, and streamed on both TVNZ and RNZ. To have something so close to a party political moment within them would rankle those who don't share those politics. To put it another way, imagine Groundswell or Family First, neither of which are as party aligned as Toitū te Tiriti, showing up and the reception they would receive. It's part of an increasingly explicit and party political alignment of our cultural figures, particularly in these fractious times, where performers can feel contemptuous of the views of those who are elected to represent them. While arts funding does wax and wane according to different governments, the idea that it should exist has endured for decades. When it goes beyond statements to specific party-aligned organisations, the bipartisan support for such funding might become more contested. Not to mention its broad appeal, inside and outside of parliament.
