Mr Brown,
Your intimation that nurses are greedy and are already paid at a rate of $125,000 on average per year is bending the truth. Seeking to turn the public against nurses is a dirty tactic, but one we are familiar with.
So let me remind you that to achieve that rate of pay, a nurse must take on weekend shifts and night shifts away from their families and friends. This negatively impacts their own health, as it is well studied and documented that night shifts can reduce life expectancy.
Let me remind you that our counterparts in New South Wales, whom you are so eager to draw comparison to, receive 12 per cent super contributions. Even during their maternity leave they will receive 12 per cent contributions. New Zealand nurses receive a miserly 3 per cent to their super. Remind me what kind of super contributions MPs can expect.
No tangible moves to safe staffing
Let me remind you that for the 17 years of my career, there have been no tangible moves towards safe staffing or nurse-patient ratios. The lacklustre implementation of CCDM that falls under threat during every MECA negotiation is laughable, let alone the failure to acknowledge we probably need at least three to four major hospitals in the Auckland area to keep up with population growth.
In a department that has around 145 beds, we find ourselves with numbers as high as 250 patients at one time. Would you be happy for your family to be cared for in a corridor? By a nurse that has eight other patients?
Would you be happy for your family to be cared for in a corridor? By a nurse that has eight other patients?
I’ll crunch the numbers for you — that gives that nurse just over six minutes per hour per patient, no matter what that patient’s care requirement or the acuity of their presentation. Six minutes. Our waiting room often starts the day with 30-odd patients and one nurse. I’ll let you work that one out.
Harrowing abuse
Let me remind you of the harrowing abuse and violent assaults that our staff are subjected to daily. Nurses stabbed in Rotorua, strangled in Middlemore Hospital, assaulted at Middlemore triage, the gunshots in our carpark, the threats of gun violence in our waiting rooms.
The disgusting entitlement of a community that KNOWS there are no penalties for antisocial behaviour. Home detentions for violent assaults on our colleagues, just weeks after new legislation protecting frontline workers, has to be one of the biggest slaps in the face. In the month of June 2025 alone, our workplace has reported 160 incidences of violence and abuse. How does this number sit with you?
There is no remuneration that can make up for this untenable work environment . . . but we would at least accept inflation in our pay packet.
Think wisely about how you speak to the country of the nursing team who were once considered ‘heroes’ at the height of the COVID-19 response.
If a parliamentary backbencher can earn above $160,000 a year, soon to be around $180,000, surely we don’t begrudge our nurses an adequate wage. I challenge a backbencher — indeed I challenge any MP — to spend a day doing what we do and see if you think the remuneration is fair.
Think wisely about how you speak to the country of the nursing team who were once considered “heroes” at the height of the COVID-19 response. We don’t consider ourselves heroes, but we consider ourselves worthy of the respect of a reasonable pay negotiation and offer.
I’m sure you know you have a number of registered nurses living in your electorate. I know for a fact you attend church with some of them, they think highly of you. Would you approach them next Sunday, look them in the eye and tell them they don’t deserve more?
Let me know if anyone in Parliament is keen on that job swap opportunity.
Abby Broadbent