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Monthly Archives: May 2024


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Our voices must be heard

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

These are interesting times we live in. At a recent convention I attended I was asked a very interesting question about the power of a voice on global health. My response was a simple but one that rings true through the mists of time. “Throughout history the power of the voice can inspire people and make them brave, or it can diminish people by the language and the tone of voice.”

The voices of many historical figures – both good and bad – have left indelible marks on humanity and its impact on nurses has been no different! Over our history, we’ve largely been silenced by the dominant forces within the system.

So, the big question is how do nurses get that voice we long for in order to tell our story when that the voice has been stripped away from us through legislation, through policies and practice in many situations? Now more than ever it’s important that our stories be heard. One such example is the OIA NZNO obtained from Te Whatu Ora. This provides a platform for us to inform the data when it comes to getting the truth out there. This can be done by our union lending support to our nurses by giving them the courage to regain that confidence and strength. We need to protect them in a quite hostile environment where it’s not okay for nurses to speak out.

Many of our legislative decision-makers only put forward only a medical view.  Pae Ora for example looks at having doctors as part of those decision-making groups. Nurses are excluded. It raises the question again about why the voices of nurses are silenced. Is it because of the more historically subservient role that nurses play? It’s the stereotypical approach and still a hangover from the old ways! It used to be that women should be seen and heard, in many ways that archaic attitude still exists. This marginalisation is only worse if you’re Māori or another minority group.

It’s taken a few brave women to really challenge the status quo and we need to support them. The way forward is to look at what leadership looks like within nursing. And those nurses that are speaking out have got to see that there’s a group of people around them, and not just a few individuals popping up. It is the responsibility of the union to support and promote the freedom of a voice, and to protect the interests of nurses that speak out.

Through our struggles we’ve always got to be optimistic for change because our purpose in life right is to make it easy for the people coming behind us. It does take some solid action and solidarity and that’s why our Ratio Justice bus tour requires more than just a few people to turn up, but we need crowds present who need to make their voices heard loudly and clearly.

Caught between a rock and a hard place

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Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

Many of us feel we are caught between a rock and a hard place right now for different reasons. While the saying has different shades of meaning, I am aware of the frustrations of many of our members who want to act in the right way but are being forced, by circumstances created by others, to decide between two negative scenarios that potentially can prevent them from acting in accordance with their principles and values. The phrase is used as a heartfelt expression of real concern and frustration.  Bailey Zimmerman sang….

Between a rock and a hard place.
Is this where it mends or it breaks?
How much more can we take?”

A recent leaked communication from Te Whatu Ora regarding managing its 2023/34 budget put Clinical Nurse Managers (CNMs) and Associate CNMs between a rock and hard place. They were directed to “address personnel related costs…given that they have room to do this given the significant progress made on workforce shortages, such as filling nurse vacancies”.

The missive directed to have more nurses off the floor on annual leave, a ban on double shifts, not sick leave cover (except night shift and subject to CCDM). No context was provided in the letter i.e. how many nurses had left, how many work areas were still understaffed, how many areas still (after 20 years) don’t have CCDM, how many shifts under target there are, and how many vacancies could be removed if unfilled. Do CNMs decide to comply or push back? How do our senior nurses do that in a way that keeps their patients and staff, let alone themselves, safe? The pressures are huge, and relatively thankless when the senior nurses are still struggling to get pay equity relativity.

Just as recently, a historic rally of internationally qualified nurses (IQNs) was held in Palmerston North where nurse representatives asked for help to get jobs for the many nurses who have come from their homelands to work in Aotearoa, on the understanding that there are thousands of job vacancies. The issues are multiple from coming in on visitor visas instead of work visas, CAP courses that may not uphold the Nursing Council standards required for registration, not being able to get a job once registered, and having to live hand to mouth with little income and relying on the support of their communities. They cannot return home as they don’t have the funds to do so. The Government, Nursing Council, and employers must work together to help these nurses and do right by them.

RNs going to work in every sector are being forced to decide who gets care and who doesn’t. This is an everyday ethical dilemma. Those who make workforce decisions based on budget rather than quality and safety are responsible if harm comes to a patient when there are not enough nurses to do the job in a timely manner that meets the professional, ethical, legislative, and cultural standards of practice that guides their practice.

NZNO members have a choice. We can decide between a rock and hard place to try and make things work, or we can say no! Decisions made by others about us, without us are not ours to own. The responsibility of decisions that impact on quality and safety in health care lands back on their doorstep.

We don’t have to accept being between a rock and hard place. Our wins in court over contract breaches and the right to strike when all else has failed to address unsafe staffing and work conditions demonstrate our recourse options. We can also mindfully commit to stand up and join our colleagues on the picket lines, join the campaign for nurse-to-patient ratios in every sector throughout the health system, and report staff and safety concerns consistently until our voice is heard. It was great to see so many of you unite at rallies across the country at yesterday’s Day of Action. Be part of the change we want to see. Get involved. Kia kaha.

Maranga mai!

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The resurgence of colonisation in Aotearoa

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Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

The theme for the United Nations Permanent Forum for Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) was “Enhancing indigenous peoples’ right to self-determination in the context of the United Nations Declaration of Indigenous Peoples: emphasising the voices of the indigenous youth”. 

UNPFII is an expert body of the UN Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) with a mandate to provide advice on indigenous issues to ECOSOC, and through the UN agencies supports programmes to raise awareness and promote integration and coordination of activities relating to indigenous people. The UN activities and actions promote and respect the United National Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP).

The notion of UNDRIP was started many years prior by indigenous advocates across the world. The specific actions of colonisation could be seen in the patriarchal oppression that denied women of their rights, the oppression of indigenous language, cultural rights and protection of lands and territories and rights to self-determination.

Protection of our pre-existing rights has seen our rangatira travel overseas many times since 1840, including when they presented to the League of Nations in Geneva in 1920. So, it is not surprising that many Māori were instrumental in the drafting of UNDRIP, including Dr Moana Jackson who was frontline as the elected chair of Indigenous Peoples Caucus in 1990.

During the drafting of UNDRIP and UNPFII some governments were  nothing short of intentionally obstructive, so it was a triumph when the UNDRIP was adopted by the General Assembly on 13 September 2007 with the majority of 143 States in favour. While it was passed by the clear majority; Canada, USA, Australia and Aotearoa New Zealand voted against.

Eventually Aotearoa New Zealand would ratify UNDRIP in 2010 and begin to implement policies to give voice and choice to Māori, the indigenous people of Aotearoa. However, UNDRIP as a UN instrument is always under attack by the ill-informed or those intentionally trying to inflame power imbalances. The struggle for human rights is not easy and it is evident in the current debates both locally and internationally that discussions of human rights and the obligations of those rights are quickly distracted by challenges around “special rights” or “privileges”.

This year’s forum was no different I imagine from 2007. The aggressive and hostile treatment of Government on indigenous people was appalling, with many groups reporting that merely being indigenous seems to be justification enough for such punitive treatment. It always used to feel that things are worse overseas but when reflecting on changes since the 2023 elections and change of Government, these actions are just as violent here.

The 2023 election saw a new Government that has declared war on these Māori rights. They have developed legislation to challenge the rights to self-determination set out in the nation’s founding document Te Tiriti o Waitangi and reflected in the Declaration. They are developing a new set of ‘Treaty principles’ that remove any reference to Māori and publicly challenged the status of Māori as an Indigenous people.

They have disparaged Māori language and have mandated agencies to remove Māori language or diminish its use in names and government documents. This list of attempts to oppress Māori continues, but what is encouraging as we have seen nationally and at the UNPFII, is the uprising of the youth.

There is a new generation of hope in the power global voice of the youth, determined by struggles of the past and that builds on an indigenous future.