The March 1989 front cover of NZNO’s Kaitiaki Nursing New Zealand journal showed nurses with two placards. One says: “Health cuts don’t heal” the other “No frigates”.
Thirsty-six years on and the message, sadly, still resonates. In April, the Coalition Government announced an extra $9 billion is to be spent on military hardware including new aircraft, frigate updates and missiles.
At the same time thousands of public service jobs have gone and the pressure on health services is growing, with nurses alarmed over unsafe staffing and doctors expressing grave concerns.
If we are going to truly care for and defend our communities, let’s start on the home front.
With New Zealand under pressure from Australia and the United States to lift our defence spending above two per cent, critics have launched a campaign highlighting what the current defence spending costs on a daily basis.
In a series of posters, a reactivated 1980s network of peace activists, Just Defence points out that current military spending amounts to $16.46 million a day. And that’s before the extra $9 billion!
In April, a nationwide poster campaign listed what one day of military spending would pay for:
- 144 registered nurses for a year.
- 174 midwives for a year.
- 211 teachers for a year.
- 890 hip operations.
- And less than two days’ military spending would pay everyone’s prescriptions for a year.
Nurse practitioner Mikey Brenndorfer works in Tāmaki Makaurau and knows first hand the pressures on the workforce, and patients, that comes from underfunding.
“We see it every day on the real front line, our health services. The health risks facing our communities are here and now. If we are going to truly care for and defend our communities, let’s start on the home front.”
Readers wanting further information can go to linktr.ee/stopwar.nz
— Mikey Brenndorfer is an Auckland nurse practitioner. Alastair Duncan is a former NZNO industrial advisor and member of Just Defence. Just Defence is a collective of peace activists, scientists and ex-military personnel which formed in 1986 to lobby for a system designed only for defence — not aggression — and has been reactivated this year amid global power rivalries.