新西兰主要反对党工党承诺，如果赢得11月7日选举，将恢复预算盈余，并表示将恢复薪酬公平法律，以支持女性劳动者。
New Zealand’s main opposition Labour Party pledged to return the budget to surplus if it wins the Nov. 7 election and said it will restore pay equity laws to support female workers.
作者：马修·布罗凯特（Matthew Brockett）工党周日发布财政计划，表示将把预算运营拨款维持在24亿新西兰元（14亿美元），并寻求逐步将净债务降至国内生产总值的20%以下。工党表示，将在2029年实现预算盈余，与财政部目前的预测一致。
By Matthew Brockett Releasing its fiscal plan on Sunday, Labour said it will keep budget operating allowances at NZ$2.4 billion ($1.4 billion) and seek to reduce net debt to below 20% of gross domestic product over time. It would return the budget to surplus in 2029, it said, in line with current Treasury forecasts.
执政的国家党称，工党并未说明将如何为选前作出的所有承诺提供资金。最新民调显示，两党支持率持平，选举结果难以预测。恢复薪酬公平法律将带来高昂成本；这些法律允许女性从业者占主导的行业在能够证明自己因性别而获得较低薪酬时寻求补救。
The governing National Party claims Labour hasn’t explained how it will fund all of its promises ahead of the election, which is too close to call with support for both tied in the latest opinion poll. The restoration of pay equity laws, which allow female-dominated industries to seek redress if they can show they are paid less on the basis of gender, would involve significant cost.
随着选举临近，新西兰预算赤字收窄。去年，政府修改法律，提高了提出薪酬公平申诉的难度，从而将未来四年用于和解的预留资金减少了128亿新西兰元。
New Zealand Sees Narrower Budget Deficits as Election Looms When the government last year amended the law to make it harder to lodge pay equity claims, that reduced the amount it needed to set aside for settlements by NZ$12.8 billion over four years.
工党领袖克里斯·希普金斯（Chris Hipkins）在新闻发布会上说：“我们正在恢复女性争取薪酬公平的权利，并相信我们能够承担相关成本。”不过，他表示，薪酬公平是通过谈判确定的，提前宣布为个别申诉预留了多少资金会破坏这一程序。
“We are restoring the right for women to claim pay equity, and we’re confident that we can meet the cost of it,” Labour leader Chris Hipkins told a news conference. However, because pay equity is determined through negotiation, it would undermine the process to announce in advance how much had been set aside for individual claims, he said.
工党表示，由该党领导的政府还将立即为6.5万名护理与支持工作者每小时加薪4元，到2031年的总成本为25亿新西兰元。
Labour said a government it leads will also give an immediate pay rise of $4 an hour to 65,000 care and support workers at a cost of $2.5 billion through 2031.
该党工作场所关系事务发言人简·蒂内蒂（Jan Tinetti）说：“工党不会接受一种制度，仅仅因为某项工作传统上由女性承担，就低估它的价值。护理与支持工作者承担着我们社区中一些最重要的工作，而其中绝大多数是女性。”
“Labour will not accept a system where work is undervalued simply because it is work traditionally done by women,” said Jan Tinetti, the party’s workplace relations spokesperson. “Care and support workers do some of the most important work in our communities, and overwhelmingly they are women.”