Labour’s health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall said this week, if elected, Labour would guarantee a job for every New Zealand-trained nurse in the public health system.
It comes after two painful years for nursing graduates — the first casualties of a 2024 hiring freeze at Te Whatu Ora-Health NZ (HNZ) in the face of a $1.4 billion deficit. Then-chief executive Margie Apa denied the freeze, which was confirmed last month by documents released under the Official Information Act.
‘We think this is amazing, we’d love for this to happen — but a lot of the time we get promises but not the action.’
Since then, nurse graduate job rates have remained low, with fewer than half employed on graduation compared to 80-90 per cent previously. Meanwhile, more than 400 (enrolled and registered) graduates are still waiting in the ACE job pool — some from as far back as 2024.
NZNO student vice-chair Siarra Marsh said everyone she talked to at her Taranaki nursing campus was happy with the policy — but a little unconvinced it would really happen.
“We think this is amazing, we’d love for this to happen — but a lot of the time we get promises but not the action.”
It would also help keep locally-trained nurses in the country, she said.
NZNO’s 2025 student survey showed 60 per cent of nursing students were considering moving overseas after graduating as they didn’t think they’d get jobs here — rising to 70 per cent for tauira Māori.
Placement poverty was another challenge for nursing students, who must do 1000 hours of clinical placements during their degree — including 10 weeks in their final year. This was a key reason for high dropout rates, particularly now free-fees had been dumped, Marsh said.
“So this gives us hope – and having hope is sometimes all we get in this political environment. It gives us something to hold onto, that it might happen.”
Mentoring, enough hours and financial support also key
Marsh said students had also successfully fought to regain their 0.8 full-time-equivalent (FTE) hours after they were slashed to 0.6 FTE in 2025. Chief nurse Nadine Gray confirmed in July that that its latest round of job offers would be 0.8 FTE.
NZNO Te Rūnanga Tauira chair Poihaere Whare said new graduates also needed enough senior nurses to mentor them, telling TVNZ they were few and far between.
Verrall said low hiring rates meant graduates were being forced overseas while the nursing workforce grew by just 54 FTE in two years — despite a health system ” in crisis”.
“This is about giving graduates certainty, strengthening the workforce, and improving care for patients,.”.
Labour would also double the subsidy for primary health to hire new graduates, from $20,000 to $40,000 in urban areas and $15,000 to $30,000 in rural, she said.
By the numbers:
- So far in 2026: Less than half of the latest batch of RN graduates found jobs in July — and 15 per cent of EN graduates.
- HNZ has promised to employ 1800 registered nurse (RN) and 70 enrolled nurse (EN) graduates over its 2026/27 financial year from July 1 to June 30, 2027.
- In 2025, there were 2404 RN graduates and 339 EN graduates — a total of 2743 nurse graduates.
- Based on these figures, HNZ promise would amount to an employment rate of about 70 per cent.
- However, adding the 435 EN/RN graduates still unmatched as far back as 2024/25 brings that down to 60 per cent.