Labour says if elected it will guarantee jobs in the public health sector for all eligible New Zealand-trained nurses who graduate.
As part of the election pledge, eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurses would be offered a role through the existing Advanced Choice of Employment (ACE) and primary care employment schemes.
The party said the Graduate Nurse Job Guarantee would cost $525 million, funded from health cost-pressure funding.
Labour leader Chris Hipkins said the guarantee would mean all of the estimated 2400 nurses who graduate a year would get a job offer at graduation, for at least 0.8 full-time equivalent (FTE).
"Graduate nurses are being trained here, but instead of starting their careers in New Zealand, too many are being forced to look overseas because National won’t give them a job".
Labour said just 54 additional full-time equivalent nurses had been hired in the past two years, and comes amid stories about Kiwis lured to countries including Australia offering higher salaries and better working conditions.
Hipkins said the health system was "in crisis", and that nurses "deserve certainty that there will be a job waiting for them when they qualify".
Labour's spokesperson for health Ayesha Verrall said "patients shouldn’t be left waiting in soiled beds".
"Nurses and doctors shouldn’t be forced to work in conditions they describe as an 'absolute nightmare' because they don't have the staffing they were promised," she said.
Health New Zealand's boss has apologised and promised she'll do better, Benedict Collins reports. (Source: 1News)
Verrall said the party would also fix the shortage of nurses in primary care by doubling the funding available through the current recruitment subsidy.
"We will increase the current rate for rural nurses from $20,000 to $40,000 and for nurses in urban areas from $15,000 to $30,000," he said.
The Graduate Nurse Job Guarantee would apply to graduates sitting their State Final examination from July 2026 onwards. From 2027, eligible graduates would be offered roles on graduation.
Job offers would also depend on graduates passing their State Final examination and required pre-employment checks. Both registered and enrolled nurses were eligible under the scheme.
Graduates must also be a New Zealand citizen, permanent resident, returning resident visa holder or Australian citizen, and have completed their nursing qualification at a New Zealand tertiary institution.
National responds
National health spokesperson Simeon Brown said in response that “this year, Health New Zealand already expects to take on more nursing graduates into hospital-based roles than in any of the past seven years, as well as supporting other graduate nurses into primary and community care".
“Labour's claim that it can fund this new health policy out of existing Health New Zealand cost pressure funding is not credible. That money is already committed to meeting the demands of a growing and ageing population.
“In reality, this policy would have to be paid for through higher taxes or by cutting funding for elective surgeries and cancer care, meaning longer waits for patients - exactly what happened when Chris Hipkins was Prime Minister and Ayesha Verrall was Health Minister.”
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