Winston Peters holding hope of reaching agreement with nurses before tomorrow's strike - 'You never give up'

Winston Peters is not giving up hope an agreement can be reached with the nurses before tomorrow's strike, however he acknowledged the Government would not concede from its latest offer. 

"You never give up, but we've gone as far as we can go as a Government. That's the best we can do in six months or in one budget."

He said the current Government had inherited a situation where "the nurses had a real raw nine years" while the National Party was in power.

Mr Peters said the nurses had given a commitment that no one would be endangered by the strike, "and we expect them to keep their word".

The New Zealand Nurses Organisation says potentially over 30,000 New Zealand Nurses Organisation members would be involved in the 24 hour strike, scheduled to start at 7am tomorrow, after nurses rejected the District Health Boards' latest pay offer.