Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

On 12May 2022 NZNO launched the Maranga Mai! campaign. Central to Maranga Mai! are the “Five Fixes” which form the charter of demands for the campaign:

1. Te Tiriti o Waitangi actualised within NZNO and across the health system
2. More nurses across the health sector
3. Pay and conditions that meet nurses’ value and expectations
4. More people training to be nurses (in New Zealand)
5. More Māori and Pasifika nurses

These fixes have a number of areas of focus.

In her recent blog,, NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said our work and lives are political. She encouraged members to “get political”, and indeed, it is our professional responsibility to do so.

The third fix, more specifically the conditions needed to meet nurses’ values and work conditions, demands political critical thinking, collective power and action to meet our responsibilities to ourselves, our future selves and those we care for.

So what is the” WHY” in our Maranga Mai! campaign?

Our why is to win the necessary political and resourcing commitments needed to address the nursing, midwifery, HCA, support worker and kaimahi hauora shortage crisis permanently, across the whole health sector.

“WHAT” are we aiming to achieve?

1. Mandated minimum nurse-to-patient ratios supported by a fit for purpose tool that can increase appropriate skilled and experienced nurse resourcing when and where it is needed.

Mandated means legislation, which means political and collective power and action is needed. This is an outcome of the remit passed by the membership at the 2020 AGM.

Going forward, nurses must have appropriate levels of experienced and skilled resource available, built on data driven information to ensure patients and nurses are not put at risk. Nurses must not have to struggle to do the best they can, fearful of what may meet them when they go to work. This must be worked through across all sectors of the health system, not just the DHBs – and the Māori and iwi sector is the most urgently in need of attention.

2. All nurses, regardless of their sector must receive pay equity/parity and work conditions that: reflect the true value of nurses everywhere; attract people to the profession; and support nurses’ work choices.

While the Minister of Health has already signalled this will happen, the questions are when and which sector first? Māori and Pasifika nurses in primary care have, for a long time, been marginalised, more so than many other nurses in different sectors.

Making our commitment to te Tiriti o Waitangi a reality is a real opportunity for us all. Raising up our Māori and Pasifika colleagues will drive parity of pay and conditions for all.

“HOW” are we going to do this?

Our national Maranga Mai! campaign strategy is being developed by our great team and it will be up to us, the nurses at the coal face, to make it real for ourselves locally. Our expectation that the recent Budget would deliver on some of our goals has not been realised. Therefore, we have to to take the lead.

The Care & Support Worker rallies we held across the country (together with the PSA and E tū) on 23 May were our first ‘on the ground’ and publicly visible Maranga Mai! action, and I was proud to lead and speak at the one held in Dunedin. We will do many more of these sorts of activities.

The power to create change is in our hands. Every nurse everywhere must Maranga Mai! – Rise up and act together.

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

Nurses have long been marginalised in the politics of health and unfortunately, NZNO hasn’t been a strong enough advocate to challenge that. For years the organisation has made compromises and concessions because it didn’t have the political will or the belief in our collective strength to challenge power.

But we need to get past the idea that we’re non-partisan. Our work is political, our lives are political, and the powerful will exploit our apathy to their advantage. As health workers we’re advocates for our patients and as a union and professional organisation, we advocate for a better health system. To do that we must engage in politics. And by that I don’t mean endorsing a political party. I mean building and pushing our own vision of health and holding all decision-makers to account to get there.      

After all, unions have always fought on broader political causes because workers’ lives don’t just begin and end when they clock in. Unions have been part of the fight for Indigenous liberation, women’s rights, racial justice, climate justice and the peace movement across the world. As the union saying goes, “an injury to one is an injury to all.” We are part of a long history of collective struggle for all people.

I also want to point out that it’s not only our unionist roots that demand political courage, but our professional responsibilities too. When standards of practice are watered down or public health measures are eased against our better judgement, those are the result of political decisions that we must challenge. 

So now, with the general election on the horizon, we start seeing National and the Act Party rolling out racist rhetoric, including calls to extinguish the Māori Health Authority. They’re also advocating the same economic policies that gutted our health system. At the same time Labour will continue to make promises they won’t deliver on. We need to watch all this and be ready to push back on it.  

From this point on, NZNO must change the way it operates if we want to go from conservative to progressive, from reactionary to proactive. If we want what’s best for ourselves and our communities, we need to go hard and front foot on political issues.

We must start to empower people to do their own thinking and not be afraid to front divisive issues on race, gender, sexuality, class, and power. We can’t sit and wait for change to happen for us. We’ve got to be courageous and realise we have the power to make change. Not only do we have the power, we have the right and the responsibility to stand up, be heard and fight for a better future.