PM Christopher Luxon has refused to set a timeline for delivering National’s promised $22,500 of student loan support for graduate nurses, as he says the health portfolio has been the Government’s most challenging.
Earlier today, about 36,000 nurses, midwives and other health workers walked off the job today in an eight-hour nationwide strike over staffing and pay levels.
Luxon’s pre-election promise would have provided new and recently registered nurses and midwives up to $4500 annually towards student loan repayments, totaling $22,500 over five years. It was announced by the National leader in May 2023.
Watch 1News’ full interview with the Prime Minister on TVNZ+
But speaking to 1News Political Editor Maiki Sherman, the Prime Minster said he “can’t give a firm commitment around timing”, insisting that it remained a “live” issue.
The health agency still has to fill a $1.1 billion hole in the next year, while nurses call for health bosses to listen. (Source: 1News)
Asked if he would keep the promise, he said: “Well, we’ll continue to look at that.
“But what has changed in the last year, just to give you a feel for it, is there are 2900 full-time equivalent nurses in the system extra. We have 29,500 full-time equivalent nurses in New Zealand — the most nurses we’ve ever had in the system.”
He said more nurses were needed in aged care, primary care and in rural communities.
When pressed, Luxon said: “I can’t give a firm commitment around timing, but I can say that programme is still something that Shane Reti will work his way through.”
One nurse and a union delegate, Hilary Gardner, criticised the Government’s position as “another broken promise” showing “disrespect” to the workforce.
“I think there’s a significant amount of our student nurses who will be leaving to Australia as soon as they possibly can,” she told 1News.
The PM said there were “more pressing issues” to manage in the health system, but that incentives for student nurses remained a “live” issue for Reti.
He said: “It’s still a live proposal on the table. As to when it gets action, and how it does, that’s up to Shane Reti and he’ll work his way through that.
“Right now, there’s some other more pressing issues that we have to deal with in healthcare, like actually getting Health New Zealand to a high performing state, get the funding through, get the cancer drugs out the door.”
‘Fair’ to say health the Govt’s biggest challenge – PM
Luxon agreed when asked if health had been his coalition’s hardest portfolio to tackle, since coming into power more than 12 months ago.
“It is a complex system. It has 85,000 people that work in it. It’s been a really botched merger of the DHBs. You know, the 20 DHBs were sort of whacked together,” he said.
“It’s a hard, hard one to turn around, but we need to make sure we get the funding in place, which we’ve committed to doing.
The way foreign nurses are required to come to NZ in order to get assessed and registered is raising questions around the transparency of the process at a time when the job market is so tight. (Source: 1News)
“Think about the $17 billion going on at the budget. Think about the $2 billion to fund Pharmac, plus the $600 million in cancer drugs. That’s all good stuff.”
Luxon said his coalition’s programme of targets is an important part of delivering on people’s expectations for the health system.
The sector has been under pressure for years with issues coming to a head with Health NZ facing significant budget overruns. The deficits lead the Government to appoint a commissioner to replace the entity’s board earlier this year.