I have been a nurse for eight years in this country. Over those eight years, I have been through a huge number of ups and downs, both clinically and personally.
I can confidently say that never have I ever seen such blatant disrespect — not only to nurses, but our health-care system as a whole — as what the current Government is levelling at us.
Our Government serves the wealthy few at the expense of the many.
Under the guise of saving money for “the country“, they have made the intentional choice to give tax cuts to landlords and tobacco companies, then turn around empty-handed, saying: “Sorry, we have nothing left for our public health system.”
A Government should serve the people. But our Government serves the wealthy few at the expense of the many.
The evidence is really clear that the more we, as a country, invest in health care, the healthier and richer we are overall. The investments we don’t make now become the emergencies we have to face tomorrow.
This Government knows the cost of everything and the value of nothing.
The rollback of pay equity claims is the latest attack on health-care workers by this Government.
Pay equity has been long fought for and heralded as both fair and needed for all nurses, midwives and care and support workers by Kiwis who see and appreciate the work we do. Why should decent pay, equity and safe staffing for health-care workers be scrapped to pay for this Government’s budget and wayward priorities? Why are nurses and patients paying for tax cuts to landlords and big tobacco? Make it make sense.
The negative difference this Government is making to our lives as nurses can be felt on the ward floor. Before the 2023 general election, many of Te Toka Tumai Auckland hospitals were in the middle of a clearly needed staffing uplift.
But after this Government came in, an entire district — Waitematā, which includes Waitākere and North Shore hospitals — was prevented from recruiting to its recommended safe staffing levels.
Why are nurses and patients paying for tax cuts to landlords and big tobacco?
And now, in meetings I have been a part of as an NZNO delegate, Te Whatu Ora is saying hospitals around the country need to operate at 20 per cent below recommended staffing levels on a morning shift . . . because the one thing we know patients love is when the staff can’t reach them on time!
‘Sheer disdain’ for nurses
Now we need to act — to make sure we hit them in the pockets with strikes, since we know money and power is what they care about.
The sheer disdain shown to nurses by this Government is astounding.
Former health minister Shane Reti repeatedly said that “recruitment, retention and remuneration” were the number one priority for health.
Yet after coming into power, they went STRAIGHT to what is objectively a hiring freeze (despite their claims it isn’t one), attacked our safe staffing programme, rolled back pay equity — and are now offering us an effective pay cut.
So they lied to us. With the loss of pay equity claims, staff hiring freezes, outsourcing to private hospitals and ongoing underfunding of health, they have pulled the rug right out from our public health-care system. This Government is gutting the entire public sector for the sake of lining their own pockets.
So, what are we going to do about it?
‘We need to get angry’
I voted NO to the proposed offer. That’s a start. Now we need to act — to make sure we hit them in the pockets with strikes, since we know money and power is what they care about. Not nurses complaining, not the public getting sick — they care about money and getting re-elected. Let’s make it harder for them on both fronts. We need to get angry, creative and noisy.
I am glad nurses have not meekly accepted the unacceptable. It is time to fight, nothing will change and in fact it can and will get worse unless we stand up for ourselves and our patients.
Don’t let the wealthy few determine our future. As the most recent Minister of Health Simeon Brown has revealed with his plans for private sector partnerships, they want their private health care. We want our public health care. And we are going to make that resoundingly clear.
We are not alone; our senior doctors and allied health staff are in the same position. Everyday working Kiwis stand with us. The stars are aligned, together we can save our public health system, if we dare.
— Troy Stewart is an NZNO delegate and Auckland nurse.