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Every life matters

Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

In a world where calls for a ceasefire are debated while innocent people continue to die – and those who try to help, the aid workers, nurses, doctors and more, die alongside them – what does it mean to us, so far away on the other side of the world?

What does it mean when we are told that weapons are made and delivered by the same regimes that call for a ceasefire. You have to wonder which side is up. War cannot happen if there are no weapons, and there are other ways to settle disputes.

Every life matters.

The struggle to respect, protect and support life belongs to all of us. This is fundamental to us as health professionals. We all have our own struggles but in this country we are expected to ‘harden up’ and get on with it.

Mike King (comedian and founder of I am Hope’ foundation) thinks otherwise. His sincere hope is that Kiwi “stop pretending we have our shit together”. He further says that having a suicidal thought doesn’t make you mentally ill, it makes you human. If you haven’t left your house at least once in your life thinking ‘what’s the point’ then you need to get out of the marshmallow you’re living in.”

Why? Because we are failing our children. Our children are our future. Suicide is the third leading death category for our kids aged 28 days to 24 years (one in five of our mokopuna, but much worse for our 15- to 19-year-olds and young men). Serious thoughts of suicide and attempted suicide occur more often in areas of high deprivation and under the current government, deprivation is set to grow. This is avoidable, unfair, and unjust. This is a major issue, and it belongs to all of us.

Yet, right now, in a bid to cut costs and honour the election promise of tax cuts, the current Government is slashing and burning the Suicide Prevention Office, set up to work with the many public health and community groups working towards eliminating suicide.

It’s also proposing downgrading the drug-checking services function leading to a loss of people working in mental health and addictions. Further, the national telehealth service is struggling to recruit enough qualified clinical staff to operate the 24/7 phone lines for triaging people with mental health problems, while also supporting police and ambulance services. In the next four weeks, more than half the shifts are understaffed. Why? Poor pay and conditions.

National promised pre-election that there would be no cuts to front line health services. Yeah, right. The currently proposed cuts will end the lives of our most vulnerable. Yet this Government is ignoring the facts. It is cheaper to prevent harm than to try and fix it when it happens. We cannot stand by in silence. We must act.

Mike King’s patai (question) is, will we climb out of our marshmallows, rise up (Maranga Mai!) and be counted? Will we take off our masks and be more vulnerable in front of our kids, and maybe, just maybe, they’ll be able to take off their masks and reach out and ask for help before something tragic happens.

Jess Glynne reminds us all: “Don’t be so hard on yourself, no. Learn to forgive, learn to let go. Everyone trips, everyone falls. So don’t be so hard on yourself, no.”

We need to start talking to each other, and our children – today. If you need to talk – free call or text 1737 any time or Lifeline – 0800 543 354.

If your need NZNO help call 0800 28 38 48.


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(In)Justice

Anne Daniels, President
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.”
― Martin Luther King Jr

Last year, I had the privilege of attending most of the NZNO Regional Council Conventions. During the day we discussed member engagement and what motivates members to get involved by going to meetings, rallies, protests, and taking on an advocacy role such as being a delegate, or health and safety representative. The answer was anger at injustice. Anger overcomes fear. Anger motivates a person to find out how to right the wrong. Anger motivates a person to become part of the solution through action.

Justice assumes that society has a responsibility to treat people fairly. Society confirms concepts of justice in its legal frameworks. There is an inter-relationship between law and justice, which means that one does not automatically override the other. Laws are modified over time, and it’s thought that when they are applied, justice is increased.

But does it? What if the law is unjust? What if there is no law to provide justice? Right now, in New Zealand, laws are being repealed and changed which will result in injustice in our society and lead to an increase in poor health outcomes for those we care for. So, what do we do about it?

It is said there is power in the people to create change. The history of protests shows this to be true. The Kia Ora incident (1984) is an example of one person starting an action, and seeing it finish with the power of the people behind her. Naida Glavish, a telephone operator was instructed to stop using “Kia ora” when greeting callers. Glavish refused and was stood down, with the whole affair attracting much public interest. She was later given back her job when the Postmaster General, who initially supported the Kia ora ban, changed his mind, and persuaded the Prime Minister Robert Muldoon to overturn the prohibition. This incident was considered key in the movement to revitalise the Māori language. The power of the people overcame the injustice.

On Waitangi Day 2024, I was asked to attend a hikoi in Dunedin to protest against the current Government’s policy to review te Tiriti o Waitangi, our country’s 180-year-old founding document, which will “unravel decades of indigenous progress” I have attended and led many protests in my time, but this hikoi was the first where there were so many people participating, I could not see the end of the march. The power of the people was palpable. Māori and non-Māori came together to fight injustice. I knew that this was just the beginning. Justice will be served.

So, it must be for NZNO members. Exhaustion, fear professional and personal responsibilities cannot hold us back from standing together and acting against the injustices perpetuated against us and those we care for. Inaction perpetuates injustice and consequent suffering, negates change, and is done to us, without us. We cannot stand by and allow this to happen. Every member everywhere must heed the call of our Maranga Mai! Strategic Plan 2023-2025, and act locally, regionally, nationally. Together we stand, divided we fall. We cannot wait for ‘someone else’ to do it for us. Each one of us has the power to make a difference. But we have unstoppable power when we act together in “unionity”.

NZNO represents more than 60,000 members. Together, we are a power to be reckoned with. This year the Membership Committee (made up of regional council representatives) will work with other NZNO groups to reach out to ask every nurse, everywhere to raise their voice and do the mahi. This year we will fight the injustice of being told to do more with less, putting ourselves and our patients at risk. Nurse-patient ratio legislation will protect us from these injustices but together we will have to fight on the picket lines, and in the halls of power. Marvin Gaye sang “Picket lines and picket signs/Don’t punish me with brutality/Talk to me, so you can see/Oh, what’s going on.” I will see you all there, Every nurse, everywhere.


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Get up, stand up. Don’t give up the fight!

Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

Late in 2023 NZNO CE Paul Goulter outlined NZNO’s priorities for 2024. First and foremost is achieving Pay Parity for nurses working outside of Te Whatu Ora. Consequently, on 8 December NZNO raised a Pay Equity claim for Primary Health Care members involving more than 500 employers. We are standing up and fighting the roadblocks in our way.

Heading into 2024, the NZNO Board has prioritised member health and safety. Paul Goulter recently said, “We need to ensure that nurses and health care workers work in safe workplaces and that they are unafraid to press for their rights.” Specifically, we will be standing up and fighting for our right to safe staffing through legislated nurse-to-patient ratios underpinned by CCDM.

Health and safety is everyone’s business, including Government, employer and employee. The Government’s job is to provide legislation and policy. A guiding principle of the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015 is that workers and others need to be given the highest level of protection possible from workplace risks.

Employers and employees need to uphold legislation and standards in practice. The employer must engage with the workers and enable them to identify and manage risks (physical or mental) in the workplace. Employers must “ensure there are sufficient health care and support workers on duty at all times to provide culturally and clinically safe services” (Health and Disability services (safety) standard 2.3.1). But we all know that is not happening.

Research tells us that appropriate levels of nurse staffing is critical to patient safety. The CCDM system matches staff resources to patient care need supporting a better working environment but is yet to be fully funded or implemented after 20 years of asking.

The lack of Government or employer commitment is telling – every time a nurse writes an unsafe staffing incident report. My request to Te Whatu Ora and the Ministry of Health to provide numbers around reports of unsafe staffing over the last five years was declined because “it would take too long and too much resource” to provide me with an answer.

Te Whatu Ora is required to “follow the National Adverse Event Reporting Policy for internal and external reporting… to reduce preventable harm (HDSS 2.2.4). Therefore, Te Whatu Ora and the government are legally required to resource data collection and reporting. We will not let this go.

Health and safety representatives (HSRs) around the country have consistently reported unsafe staffing, met with managers and escalated their concerns. HSRs have submitted increasing numbers of Provisional Notices of Improvement to WorkSafe over the last three years but an external review found there are “some instances of known harm where WorkSafe appears to be taking little or no intervention” (Pennington, 2023). This is why we need nurse patient ratio legislation to fund and implement safe staffing (and CCDM) across the whole health sector.

Meanwhile HSRs are making a difference. In December 2023 alone, the Waikato District Nursing Service used health and safety process to gain an increase of eight RN FTE. The HSR said that after asking for years “the Executive now knows we mean business”.

Wellington ED HSRs working with the CCDM facilitator, identified a gap of 67 FTE through Trendcare data. Health and safety caught the attention of media repeatedly through actions taken by member HSRs, e.g. Auckland (Nico Woodward), Gisborne (Christine Warrender), Waikato (Janferie Dewar) where there are chronic failures to safely staff workplaces.

2024 will see us all “Get up, stand up. Stand up for our rights!” (Bob Marley and the Wailers).