Pitched as a disability support system that puts disabled people and their families first, TOP's October 2026 disability statement pairs two firm pay commitments with a promise to design wider changes alongside Deaf and disabled people.

📋 TOP: Disability Position Statement, October 2026 →

What it does

• Ends the rules that let employers pay disabled people less than the minimum wage.
• Reinstates the pay equity rules from the Equal Pay Amendment Act 2020. TOP says this would ensure fair pay for care and support workers, after the 2025 law change cancelled many active pay equity claims, including theirs.
• Says TOP's Citizens' Income and a Disability Allowance would give disabled people and unpaid carers more financial security, and that benefit rules should not penalise people for doing paid work.
• Aims to improve respite care and support for unpaid carers, and to work towards a "Tell Us Once" system so people with long-term needs do not have to repeat their story to every agency.
• Commits to working with disabled people's organisations, tāngata whaikaha Māori and Turi Māori leaders and the Independent Monitoring Mechanism, and to New Zealand's obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities.

The debate

• The coalition Government's 2025 pay equity law change stopped 33 active claims. Workplace Relations Minister Brooke van Velden said at the time that the previous thresholds were "a bit too loose" and that claims had progressed without strong evidence of undervaluation, while unions including the PSA and the Nurses Organisation called the changes an attack on women.
• Newsroom reported that Opportunity has said it would restore pay equity, but that this is not one of its coalition bottom lines. Former National MP Jackie Blue, the newest member of Opportunity's board, resigned her National Party membership over the Government's cancelling of pay equity claims.