Brooke van Velden defends c-word in Parliament and calls to scrap Public Service Commission
Brooke van Velden used her final speech in Parliament to stand by her use of the c-word in the House and to call for the Public Service Commission to be abolished.
Van Velden is the ACT MP for Tāmaki and the party's former deputy. She leaves politics at the election RNZ. Her speech closes a career in Parliament that included time as a minister and a term in the party leadership.
She returned to last year's incident when she said the word in the debating chamber. She said at the time it was protest after a newspaper column directed the slur at her and other women ministers. She held the Workplace Relations Minister role when she said it RNZ. In her final speech she stood by that decision.
Her other main proposal was about how government is run. She said the Public Service Commission should be abolished. The Commission oversees the appointment of chief executives. She proposed ministers should hire chief executives directly instead.
She said she was proud of her work repealing and replacing the Holidays Act. That change sat in her workplace relations portfolio. It was the policy achievement she chose to single out as she leaves.
On her personal position, she said she is due to have her first baby in early November. She said her pregnancy was not the reason for leaving politics.
Her exit has been signalled for some months. She announced she will not stand at the 2026 general election Newstalk ZB. She made that announcement in Parliament surrounded by her caucus and leader. The Beehive website carries the text under the title 'Valedictory Speech To House of Representatives' attributed to Hon Brooke van Velden Beehive.
The broader context here is familiar on valedictory week. Members use the protection of a final speech to settle accounts and put one last policy marker down. Van Velden did both. She framed her defence of last year's language as a point about standards for women ministers. She framed the Commission proposal as accountability.
Looking at what this means for the House after she leaves, neither element binds her party or the Government. Valedictories carry no legislative weight. They do put colleagues on notice about where a departing member saw unfinished business. For ACT, the loss is a senior electorate MP and former deputy going into an election campaign. For the public service debate, her direct-hire model would shift appointment power from an independent commissioner to ministers. That is a clear constitutional choice, with trade-offs around ministerial control and chief executive independence that select committees, the groups of MPs that examine proposals, and Cabinet would need to test in detail if it ever progressed.
