It took less than an hour to decide to cancel pay equity processes

OIA documents released to RNZ reveal what happened at a 2pm online meeting on 19 March 2025. The meeting was attended by Workplace Relations Minister Brooke Van Velden, Finance Minister Nicola Willis, Public Service Minister Judith Collins, Health Minister Simeon Brown, Women's Minister Nicola Grigg, and others.

In under 45 minutes, Ministers went further than the draft Cabinet paper had proposed. They lifted the "predominantly female" threshold to 70%, up from a drafted 66% (which itself had already been raised from an original 60%). They also settled on a 10-year ban on re-raising settled claims, down from the 20-year ban that had been discussed. Finally, they removed the last remaining tier of cross-sector comparators meaning they would have to find examples within their own sector to compare against.

The changes, announced 6 May 2025, halted all 33 pay equity claims then underway and require them to restart under the stricter criteria; already-settled claims, costing government $1.78 billion annually, were unaffected.