Election 2026: Six East Cape and Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidates back reversing Equal Pay Amendment Act
Members of Business & Professional Women Gisborne heard from East Cape and Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidates on issues such as pay equity and the gender pay gap at a meet-the-candidates event this week.
About 70 people attended the event at The Forces Cafe on Tuesday, organised by the New Zealand Federation of Business and Professional Women Gisborne (BPW).
Every candidate for both electorates was present except for the Act Party’s East Cape candidate Darrin Hawkes and independent East Cape candidate Gordon Dickson.
BPW asked candidates: “Does your party commit to the timely reversal of the [2025] Equal Pay Amendment Act that extinguished existing legitimate pay equity claims and the restoration of the 2020 Equal Pay Amendment Act?”
Only one candidate answered no - incumbent East Cape National Party MP Dana Kirkpatrick.
“We will be retaining the current pay equity system that’s in place now.”
Parliament passed the Equal Pay Amendment Act under urgency last May, before Budget 2025.
The overhaul stopped 33 active claims and lifted the threshold for proving work had been historically undervalued.
Kirkpatrick said National had spent the term “particularly focused on women’s issues”.
She referenced work by Minister for Women Nicola Grigg, including the pay equity calculator, toolkits for organisations and the board connector programme, which promotes women into governance roles.
Kirkpatrick chairs the cross-party sector group Commonwealth Women’s Parliamentarians with incumbent Ikaroa-Rāwhiti MP for the Labour Party, Cushla Tangaere-Manuel.
“We should all support women in high-profile roles and particularly in elected roles because it can be a lonely and very challenging place.”
Green Party Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate Heather Te Au-Skipworth said her party would repeal the act, but ”not repeal it back to what it was, repeal it back to better”.
She said the legislation “wasn’t that great before”.
“We need to ensure that if we’re going to repeal it, we’re not repealing it back to what it was prior to the amendment, that we’re making sure that we’ve got safeguards in place as well.”
On addressing the gender pay gap, Te Au-Skipworth said she did not know if the country should continue celebrating Women’s Suffrage Day “until we’re actually on par in regards to what we’re talking about”.
East Cape candidate for the Opportunity Party, Cail Smith, said on top of restoring pay equity, one thing that drew him to the party was the acknowledgement of unpaid labour.
“I was raised by a single mum, four kids, Dad had passed away and a lot of that struggle was carried by herself and not acknowledged.”
Smith said his party’s citizen’s income policy would benefit women “because they are the ones that are carrying unpaid labour as a baseline”.
Labour East Cape candidate Jo Luxton said: “Equal value and equal work should be paid the same rate.
“One of the policies that I am most proud of, that Labour has committed to should we form government, is restoring pay equity for women ... what this current government has done is shameful, denying tens of thousands of women, predominantly women, the right to get pay equity. We will restore that in our first 100 days.
“We will give care and support workers an initial, immediate $4 an hour pay rise, which will mean $160 in their pocket before tax.”
Te Pāti Māori Ikaroa-Rāwhiti candidate Haley Maxwell said her party would back pay equity for women and try to close the gender pay gap.
“And as Māori, we are all about equity in regards to roles and responsibility and how we get acknowledged for that.”
A question was pulled from a biscuit tin members had contributed to.
“For many New Zealanders, this election is about more than politics. It is about ensuring that whānau, tamariki and communities can thrive. How will your party deliver practical, measurable outcomes in areas such as the cost of living, health, education, climate security and Māori rights? And how will you ensure that your leadership is trustworthy, responsive and accountable to the people you represent?”
Green Party East Cape candidate Jordan Walker said: “Life is also politics, we can’t really separate those two things.”
Walker said the Green Party had a long track record of standing on the same kaupapa.
“When it comes to redistribution of wealth, when it comes to putting the power back into the hands of people and resourcing that and actually doing the work to figure out how all of that would be paid for.
“They’re not just a dream. Everyone really thinks the Green Party is too radical. I’d say that we aren’t radical enough.”
Maxwell said she believed Te Pāti Māori was the most radical party.
“In recent years, just recently, we activated, engaged and educated the whole motu. We moved the motu in the last three years in regards to our Māori rights and our foundational document, which is Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”
Tangaere-Manuel agreed with the statement.
“This election is about more than politics,” she said. “This election is about the cost of living.”