All over the country, thousands of us from various backgrounds and cultures connected on Budget Day embracing a call to stand up and hikoi against injustice and be a part of the change we want to see.

The national call for action to tāngata whenua and tāngata te Tiriti was heard by Māori and non-Māori underpinned by a growing understanding that “we are the ones that make the country’s wheels turn”. We are the workers who produce much of the country’s GDP. When we stop, the country stops.

There is huge power in the people who stand up and hikoi together. We are not only heard, but we are seen. It reminds me of a song called ‘Stand Up, sung by an incredible singer, Cynthia Erivo…

I’m gonna stand up
Take my people with me
Together we are going
To a brand new home
Far across the river
Do you hear freedom calling?
Calling me to answer
Gonna keep on keepin’ on

Doing what is morally right in a regime that sets the rules to privilege the few, not the many, takes courage. It also is founded on a belief that by standing up against an immoral tide of ‘policy bonfires’ that can only harm, not heal or help solve the health systems decades of political unwillingness to meet the ensuring challenges, that change will and must happen.

Nurses/midwives/health care assistants have huge courage. They demonstrate that every day they go to work to care in a very unsafe, under resourced, understaffed (see the recent OIA findings) healthcare work environment. Recently, a message was personally delivered to the Chief People Officer of Te Whatu Ora, Andrew Slater from delegates of our union.

This was in response to Te Whatu Ora’s leadership deciding to put the budget before the health and wellbeing of patients and the nurses who care for them in a cost containment exercise. Many nurses, midwives and health care assistants shared their feelings about their fears that chronic understaffing combined with a demand to reduce costs by slashing overtime, sick leave cover, and double shifts would harm their patients. Further nurses felt that this would increase the poor morale and drive senior nurses, with all their expertise and commitment to doing the impossible every day, to hikoi, to walk, to leave.

Andrew Slater’s response on RNZ was that it was up to the clinical managers to make that decision, despite the fact that Te Whatu Ora leadership has demanded it of them. Talk about not taking any responsibility. Decisions made by others, about us, without us, often make us take responsibility for something that is not of our making.

But without us, without the 60,000 plus NZNO members, the health system, in all sectors, would immediately halt. That is our power.

We are the largest health workforce. Doctors number about 1,800. Who is at the bedside? Nurses? But are they? Nurses and nursing are often made invisible when politicians and nurse employers talk about “which of the six sickest patients will get the five most closely monitored beds”. Do beds monitor the patients? Do cars go to see the patients in their homes? No. Nurses do the monitoring, the seeing, the caring, the being with, the critical thinking, the decision making, communicating, advocating, negotiating, facilitating, and making a system work for their patients under impossible conditions. When we stand up together and hikoi together, our power is palpable and can move mountains. Our hikoi will start soon in the form of a bus tour throughout the country, encouraging our own members and their communities to stand up with us so that we can realise Ratio Justice through culturally safe nurse patient ratio legislation for all. Together, we stand up at our coming He Tipua – Ratio Justice conference to continue our journey from “a spiritual place, growing without restraint into a desired state of being”. Freed to care. Proud to Nurse!