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Speaker 1: Here's another example of the way the pay equity game

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Speaker 1: is played by the media. If you choose not to

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Speaker 1: call a minister a sea word, you can run a

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Speaker 1: headline like this ministers set to take big pay rises

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Speaker 1: right after wiping thirty three pay equity claims. Now that

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Speaker 1: was the headline and newsroom yesterday. It's dishonest in its inference,

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Speaker 1: its emotive, it misrepresents what's happening, and in that is

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Speaker 1: the government's battle to try and convince the casual observer

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Speaker 1: there is merit in what they have done and changing

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Speaker 1: the law. Firstly, a minister's pay and inequity claim are

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Speaker 1: two completely different things. Secondly, a minister's pay is not

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Speaker 1: equity based because a woman minister gets what a male

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Speaker 1: minister gets, always have, always will, making it slightly more complicated.

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Speaker 1: A minister's pay is not merit base. They all get

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Speaker 1: the same no matter how hard they work, how many

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Speaker 1: portfolios they have, how good they are or are not. Thirdly,

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Speaker 1: although the thirty three equity claims were wiped, it doesn't

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Speaker 1: mean they were stopped from going ahead under new rules.

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Speaker 1: It doesn't mean they won't succeed under new rules. We

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Speaker 1: haven't yet seen how that particular story unfolds. Fourthly, and

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Speaker 1: part of the reason for the rule change is a

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Speaker 1: lot of the claims were not equity claims. They were

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Speaker 1: bargaining masquerading as equity from the Union's Fifthly, the fact

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Speaker 1: a minister gets to pay rise is not a minister's doing.

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Speaker 1: It's an independent body over which a minister has no control.

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Speaker 1: Like an equity claim, the body looks at similar work

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Speaker 1: to a minister's and makes a call based on those numbers.

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Speaker 1: The irony of that being who do you compare a

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Speaker 1: minister to You can't. Of course, a PM especially is unique,

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Speaker 1: so it's a muddle. It's a system that's okay only

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Speaker 1: because we can't think of another one. But at no

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Speaker 1: point is it about equity. The emotion of the debate

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Speaker 1: overtook the rationale of the debate the moment Brook van

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Speaker 1: Velden made the announcement and it's gone downhill ever since.

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Speaker 1: And Sixthly, the headline uses the word claim a ministerial

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Speaker 1: pay There is no claim, just an occasional decision independently reached.

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Speaker 1: So overall, in terms of discourse around a detailed of

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Speaker 1: not complex issue, apples and apples is what you might

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Speaker 1: hope for not immaturity in muddied waters, which is what

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Speaker 1: we've got. For more from the Mic Asking Breakfast, Listen

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Speaker 1: live to News Talks at B from six a m. Weekdays,

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Speaker 1: or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio