Vote for health: From Labour to ACT, how will (or won’t) our politicians fix safe staffing?

October 22, 2026

Kaitiaki launches an eight-day crash course on how our politicians plan to fix a health system in crisis. We’ve posed eight questions to the main parties. Now we’re rolling out their responses – or lack thereof – before the Election.

Today we ask: How will you create a safely-staffed public health system?

Party Response
Labour will offer every eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurse a job in our health system. This policy is an important step in building a nursing workforce that can meet New Zealand’s future health needs.
 
NZNO hospital members recently voted for a settlement that included an element of research into safe staffing ratios, we will honour the commitment NZNO members voted for.
 
– Health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall
 
Labour’s health policies can be found in full here: https://www.labour.org.nz/our-policies/
You cannot train a nurse in one term of Parliament, so we will seek cross-party agreement on a ten-year Health Plan with a legislative basis. Its workforce projections will be published and progress reported annually to Parliament.
 
We support lifting health funding from about 7.4 to 9 per cent of GDP, with cost pressures, including wages, met in full every year. New money for first-level care goes first to people: retaining clinicians, more training places, and a wider practice team that includes nurses.
 
We have not set staffing ratios; those belong with the people who run the system, answerable for the results.
 
– Health spokesperson Jessica Hammond
 
Opportunity health policy can be found here: https://www.opportunity.org.nz/healthy_people
Te Pāti Māori will invest $1 billion per annum in health workforce development, with a particular focus on expanding the Māori workforce and training opportunities. Māori health professionals are more likely to remain in Aotearoa, practice in rural locations, and serve underserved communities.
 
We will also explore full student loan write offs for all people who work in Aotearoa for five years after their study, creating a significant incentive for our health care workers to stay and work in Aotearoa.
 
Te Pāti Māori’s full health policy can be found here and its education and training policy here.
A safely staffed public health system requires sustained investment and workforce planning—not hiring freezes and rationed vacancies. The Green Party will work towards properly funding public health services, urgently filling vacant clinical roles, and employing the nurses Aotearoa trains to achieve safe staffing levels.
 
– Health spokesperson Hūhana Lyndon
 
The Green Party’s full health policy can be found here: https://www.greens.org.nz/health_policy
National’s health spokesperson, current Minister of Health Simeon Brown, refused to answer any of Kaitiaki’s questions, citing NZNO’s “politicising” of health in the lead up to the General Election.
The ACT Party’s health spokesperson Todd Stephenson did not answer questions due to “capacity constraints”.
No answers were received from New Zealand First’s health spokesperson Casey Costello.

Responses published in the order they were received.