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Hell is truth seen too late

Anne Daniels, President
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

It seems to me our society, indeed our world is currently topsy-turvy. In other words we are in a state of confusion or disorder with many unpredictable changes or reversals. My question is why?

Respected thinkers such as Dame Anne Salmond, a social scientist of distinguished merit, have been asking the same question. Dame Anne observes that she has taken democracy for granted. So have I. Surely democracy could not be removed from this country, but it is. Think about it. Look around. It’s happening in the USA where an anti-vaxxer has been appointed to the role of Secretary of Health and Human Services. And it’s happening here in New Zealand.

For instance, the Regulatory Standards Bill is set to elevate individual rights and private property above all other considerations in law-making in New Zealand. The Bill review is being led by the ACT party leader and Minister for Regulation David Seymour with a board appointed by the same minister. If you think that stinks, it does. Moreover, it smells of neoliberalist ideologies where freedom is for capital and investors, not ordinary people who are held in contempt or at the least are treated with callous indifference.

The Bill is set to strip away the rights of all those New Zealanders who support collective and environmental rights. As we commemorate another Waitangi Day, the attacks on te Tiriti o Waitangi are entwined with the not-so-subtle removal of fair wages, health and safety standards, environmental protections and other regulations (in the proposed Regulatory Standards bill, the Fast-Track Act, and the Treaty Principles Bill). Truth is what “sells” but the real truth is in what is not said or done by those perpetrating their version of the truth.

What does this have to do with NZNO and our members? As we enter again into negotiations with Te Whatu Ora, Primary Health Care and Aged Care, our members are being treated with a total lack of respect. This is being compounded with the latest Coalition attack on the rights of workers to strike under the proposed Employments Relations Amendment Bill and its ensuing pay deductions for partial strike.

Collective action through unionism is essential to address the imbalance of power between employee and employer and is necessary for workers to safeguard their rights in industrial relations. The ability to deduct from an employee’s wages is designed to render industrial action ineffective by shielding employers from the financial consequences of industrial action.  This amendment is strengthened by giving employers the discretion to suspend workers taking industrial action which is a punitive approach.

The entire point of industrial action is to impact upon the employer’s business. It is the principle means by which workers can gain leverage over employers in collective bargaining. Without this tool, we will be hamstrung in our negotiations. It will entrench inequity, inequality, and is a deep-rooted bias on the part of this Government against the collective interests of working people. It demonstrates a complete disregard for international law as it will be in breach of New Zealand’s obligations as a member of the International Labour Organisation.

We have 62,500 members and counting. We still have the right to strike and take industrial action. Every one of us has an obligation to use that right and not be swayed by employers who influence our members to do anything that undermines their colleague’s collective decision to take industrial action (NZNO Constitution 6.3.9) as NZNO members also have an obligation to act in accordance with the Constitution (6.3.1). We take industrial action to protect our vision to be free to care, proud to nurse, to be self-determined in shaping the role of the nurse so we lead the way to realise the ambitions of the Pae Ora Act, underpinned by te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We have a choice. We can all ‘Maranga Mai! (Rise Up) together and take united action to win the political and resourcing commitments needed to address the failing health system so we can care for our people. Or we can do nothing in the hope that someone else will do it.

“The only thing to prevent the triumph of evil is when good people do nothing.” Edmund Burke.

Stand up. Fight back!


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There are benefits to sharing power with one million Māori

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
NZNO Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa

It’s not unusual in any political cycle that indigenous people are used as political fodder. Internationally, nationally and regionally, indigenous people are blamed for increasing violence, homelessness, poverty and draining state resources particularly in justice, welfare and health.

It becomes easy for ordinary people to believe this because the perpetrators of lawlessness and violence, relentlessly splashed all over the media, are disproportionately images of people of colour. At the heart of these political games are people, children and mokopuna who are already prejudged by parts of society because they look a certain way or are born into a particular class of people.

Shifting the burden of responsibility is easier to do because it is harder to admit that we have failed as a country and we have failed to support our indigenous people.

In Aotearoa, a year into the Coalition Government, attacks on workers, unemployed and Māori are clear to see. From the Treaty Principles Bill and the Māori Wards referenda to the scrapping of Fair Pay Agreements, benefit sanctions, and the war on health and safety legislation, this is a right-wing Government bent on stoking racism, eroding worker rights, and helping the rich get richer.

The assault on our rights is overwhelming, but it has also heightened the consciousness of those who want a more just world. Yet, though we say it all the time, we have to acknowledge that even though this coalition is absolutely terrifying and hateful, no Government of the past few decades has made truly transformative change that benefits the health of our people.

We can’t wait for more promises from politicians or experts to tell us what we already know. We know what it would take to be truly valued in the work we do, and we know what it would mean to live in a society that upholds equity, human rights and Te Tiriti o Waitangi.

We all know what Māori health inequities look like.

As nurses, we know Māori are unlikely to live as long as non-Māori. We also know that by the time many Māori reach the hospital, their illness is advanced and sadly, the clock already began ticking for them before we even triaged them.

There is one common question I’m often asked by non-Māori members and colleagues, who like me are sick of seeing so many tangata whenua die of things that could have been prevented or treated if caught earlier.

That question is: “what’s the best way to address Māori health inequities”?

In my view, the answer does not lie in the medical or the clinical.

The answer lies in sharing power (and responsibility) with Māori at all levels from the boardroom table to the frontline, backline and sidelines, inside and outside our union.

The Māori population is now at its highest – one million – and at the rate my whanau, hapu and iwi are going, it will only rise.

From the people of Ngai Tahu in the South Island to the people of Ngapuhi at the top of the North Island, Māori want the genuine partnership guaranteed to them in Te Tiriti o Waitangi. They want to be in control of their own destiny, they want mana motuhake.

Māori have proved they can fix themselves when power, and that includes resources and spaces, are shared with them and when they are not micromanaged.

In the 1980s, the Māori language had almost become extinct until Māori created the kōhanga reo movement. Forty years later, the language has been saved – tens of thousands of Māori are speaking it. And hundreds of thousands of non-Māori are benefiting too.

At NZNO, we are still on the journey of sharing power, resources and spaces with Māori. The position I hold is a clear example that we have started that journey. But it must not stop there.

We must let Māori fix themselves. Tangata Tiriti or non-Māori in Aotearoa can do that by sharing power, resources, spaces with Māori at every level of our mahi.

Sometimes that means tangata Tiriti stepping aside to let Māori talk rather than talk for them.

What’s good for Māori, can only be good for this nation because when the most disadvantaged in our society are empowered, everyone in that society benefits.


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IQNs not the long-term solution

Kerri Nuku, Kaiwhakahaere
Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa NZNO

There has been some media focus recently on Internationally Qualified Nurses (IQNs) being exploited by recruitment agencies taking advantage of monetary incentives offered by the Government.

These agencies are bringing IQNs into the country without first securing them employment  which leads me to reiterate what I’ve been saying in the media. We uphold the importance of ethical recruitment. We have serious concerns about the recruitment agencies that are incentivised to flood Aotearoa with nurses, particularly from India. These nurses are often unable to be employed despite completing New Zealand’s competency assessment programme and holding NZ practising certificates (APCs).

That many recent IQNs are not being employed is through no fault of their own. IQNs are not always professionally or culturally suitable for employment in positions where local experience is required. It puts a strain on the system with training, culturalisation and finding effective support for them once they’re in jobs. The levels of support required to upskill them costs too much, so often they’re left to drown in the deep end.

It has been revealed to me recently that these agencies are also exploiting loopholes in the system to bring nurses into Aotearoa via the UK’s National Health Service. If not already illegal this kind of activity should surely be shut off as it is in my opinion tantamount to fraud.

This cannot continue and Te Whatu Ora has recently assured us that the $10,000 incentive to agencies has been closed But will the funding now be diverted to growing our own workforce where it should have been in the first place?

It’s time we realised IQNs are not the solution to the nursing shortage in Aotearoa even in the short term. Our focus should be on strategies to attract New Zealanders rather than IQNs to take up nursing study with the aim of building a strong workforce that is culturally competent and responsive.

We are aware of the harmful effects of international nurse recruitment which according to the International Council of Nurses some associations in poorer and developing countries equated with a form of neo-colonialism. IQNs are needed in their home countries as much as they are here, and this is another reason why more effort and resources need to be put into growing our own workforce.

The Government now needs to consolidate the situation with the existing number of IQNs in the country to ensure they get jobs along with appropriate training and support and this means we need to freeze the recruitment of IQNs and discourage recruitment agencies from bringing them out.
It needs to divert any possible funding into broadening the number of nursing students and then training them, keeping them, and giving them good jobs afterwards. That would be the long-term solution to this nursing crisis.