Do we like them?

Do we like Brooke van Velden?

Our score: 5 out of 10. No harm to LGBTQ+ people found, but her contested pay equity changes and a thin record of good works leave her in the middle.

Van Velden is a New Zealand politician and ACT's deputy leader, who also held the Workplace Relations and Safety portfolio in Christopher Luxon's government. She won the Tāmaki electorate in 2023, which was a big result for ACT, and is now heading out the door after nine years in Parliament.

The story that defines her time as minister is pay equity. In May 2025 the government halted pay equity claims and made it harder to lodge new ones. Van Velden has defended the overhaul, saying the old system let claims proceed without strong evidence and that the new one is simpler, more robust and sustainable.

Critics see it differently. The Council of Trade Unions and the Human Rights Commission have taken a complaint to the UN, asking it to investigate whether the changes amount to systemic discrimination against women. Her answer is that New Zealand “continues to have a robust pay equity system in place”. Where you land depends on whether you read it as budget discipline or as a rollback for women in low-paid work.

Then there was the day in May 2025 when she said the c-word in Parliament. She was quoting a Sunday Star-Times column about female ministers, and said she disagreed with its “gendered and patronising language”. Winston Peters said he was “actually disgusted”, the Speaker said it may have been better to refrain from one word, and no formal sanction followed. ACT leader David Seymour called her a star.

On the harm check, honestly, the record we could read is thin. We found nothing from her on LGBTQ+ or trans people, and nothing on climate or migrants beyond a citizenship test announced this year. We couldn't open her voting record pages, so this is a read of the headline fights, and the pay equity fight is the one that counts against her.

On the good stuff, we found no verified charity or standout kind acts, which is a gap in the record rather than proof of nothing. Her supporters point to a minister who stuck to her line under heavy fire. That earns a pass on the good-person test with an asterisk, but it doesn't win a distinction.