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• Chris Hipkins admits it was a mistake for Labour to quote a column labelling female politicians offensively.
• Labour MP Jan Tinetti’s question led to criticism from Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden.
• Hipkins says the issue distracted from pay equity debate, acknowledging Labour “played into their hands”.

Chris Hipkins admits it was a “mistake” for Labour to ask a question in Parliament yesterday that directly quoted from a newspaper column that labelled female politicians “c***s”.

The question from Labour MP Jan Tinetti directly quoted from the column - though not the section where “c***s” was used - and led to Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden criticising the language.

Hipkins says that by Tinetti quoting from that Sunday Star-Times column in her oral question, Labour contributed to a distraction from the pay equity regime changes.

“We’ve got a process for signing off questions that went all the way through that process,” he said.

“We collectively own that. So as leader of the Labour Party, I’ll own that. It would have been better had we quoted from something else, not from that column.”

Prior to that question being asked yesterday, the Herald directly asked Hipkins whether he believed it was appropriate.

“It is quoting directly from an article that was published in the paper... we live in a country of free speech,” the Labour said on Wednesday.

Asked today what had changed since then, Hipkins said, “this has now become a big distraction that is taking away from what is a very fair issue”.

“I think we made a mistake there. I think when people who are affected by this see politicians fighting with each other and making it all about themselves as we’ve seen in the last 24 hours, I think they’ll feel somewhat despondent and dejected. We should get back to talking about the issues that affect them.”

Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the question asked by Jan Tinetti was a mistake. NZ Herald photograph by Mark Mitchell

• Union accuses minister of ‘passing the buck’ on pay equity changes
• Watch: Brooke van Velden drops c-bomb, after Labour asks if she agrees with infamous column
• Watch: Luxon on attack as Hipkins claims PM ‘taking money out of women’s pay packets’

Hipkins said the Government wants to move away from the debate on pay equity and Labour “played into their hands in that regard a little bit yesterday”.

“I think that was unfortunate. I want to get the debate back to the fact that, you know, the people who are being affected by this have every right to feel aggrieved.”

He denied the language in Tinetti’s question was “misogynistic”.

“I think that there was certainly language in the column as a whole that was not language that I would use.”

The question was: “Does she agree with Andrea Vance, who said about the Equal Pay Amendment Bill: ‘It is a curious feminist moment, isn’t it? Six girlbosses – Willis, her hype-squad Judith Collins, Erica Stanford, Louise Upston, Nicola Grigg and Brooke van Velden – all united in a historic act of economic backhanding other women’.

Following Tinetti’s question yesterday, van Velden used the c-word.

“I do not agree with the clearly gendered and patronising language that Andrea Vance used to reduce senior Cabinet Ministers to ‘girlbosses [and] hype squads’, references to girl math and c***s,” van Velden said.

“The women of this Government are hard-working, dedicated and strong. No woman in this Parliament or in this country should be subjected to sex-based discrimination.

“It is a very curious feminist moment when a former Minister for Women repeats part of a clearly misogynistic article in this House.”

Stuff, the publisher of the Sunday-Star Times, previously told the Herald that it stood by the column.

A spokesperson said: “The issue of pay equity has caused robust debate.

“This is not the first time our editors have allowed the use of this word – it is carefully reviewed by experienced editors and on this occasion it was decided it was acceptable usage in this context.

“Andrea Vance, and her editor Tracy Watkins, are two of the country’s foremost political writers. Stuff has also published a spectrum of views on this issue, including today from the Minister of Finance.”

Jamie Ensor is a political reporter in the NZ Herald Press Gallery team based at Parliament. He was previously a TV reporter and digital producer in the Newshub Press Gallery office.