Opinion: In the latest in our State of the Nation series, a 50-year-old registered nurse reveals who he plans to vote for in November.
Where in New Zealand do you live? I live in Christchurch.
Which ethnicity do you identify with? New Zealand Pākehā.
How many people live in your household? There are four of us: two daughters, me, and the wife.
What’s your household’s annual income before tax? About $230,000.
Have you decided who you'll vote for in the November election? I think I'll give my [candidate] vote to our current MP – he’s a National MP. And for my party vote, probably NZ First, out of a little bit of protest.
What are you protesting? I just think that both Labour and National are not really confronting the issues and problems we have in New Zealand. They don't seem to be committed to sorting out the economy. They seem more concerned with their own interest groups. The National Party are slightly more committed to fixing education – I like what Erica Stanford is doing and I think the Labour Party just listened to the teachers' unions – but National don't seem to understand how to run a public health system.
Are there specific NZ First policies that appeal to you? They're probably better with foreign policy but... they're just not the National party or the Labour Party.
Whether NZ First joins with Labour [which has ruled out working with NZ First] or National, it takes some of the ideological edges off those parties. Because I think National wants to be a bit neoliberalist and look after the employers; and I think Labour likes to be quite socialist. I think Winston takes the rough edges off, and I think he gets a few things that he wants done.
What’s your view of NZ First’s Legislation (Definitions of Woman and Man) Amendment Bill? I didn't have a problem with it because I think some of that stuff had gone a bit too far. Like [Health NZ] had officially started writing in its literature that it wasn't a “woman” who'd end up being pregnant; it was a “person”. That's not to be harsh or negative toward The LGBTQ+ community or transgender people, but I think it had probably just gone a little bit too far, with the last [Labour] government.
If NZ First become part of a government again, it looks like that would be in coalition with National. What are your impressions of Christopher Luxon as prime minister and party leader? I don't think he's very good. I don't think he has the ability to read public opinion. I think he's probably just a corporate manager.
I don't think he's a bad person. But I understand that he's one of these people who doesn't listen to other people. He just seems to think whatever he's doing is right and carries on. I would expect him to be kicked out, no matter what happens in November.
What do you think of Chris Hipkins? He’s quite personable, but I think he hides his agenda, doesn't actually come out and say, "This is what Labour wants to do. This is how Labour wants to do it". I remember about April this year, everybody was going, "Gosh, the National government's a load of rubbish. So what does the Labour Party have in store?" And the Labour Party wouldn't come out with any policy. And then when they did come out with any policy, it was underwhelming.
Does Winston Peters strike you as being more in control as a leader? More NZ First, in general. I think the vibe of NZ First is about looking after the ordinary New Zealander.
The Green Party, for instance, you have to give them credit for thinking originally with their idea for a state-owned supermarket. But I just don't think that their ideas are too well thought through. It's gone from being an environmental party to a social justice party.
I think Labour [in 2023] fumbled and bungled the issue of co-governance. I don't think that they've explained what they mean by it, or how it would work practically. Far beyond my two cents, that made them a little bit unpopular in 2023.
The Opportunities Party has popped up, but I don't think some of its ideas stack up. I don't like ACT because I don't really like neoliberalists. And the Māori party just seem to want everything to be separate. Some of the stuff they were saying three years ago was actually quite terrifying.
NZ First supports tighter immigration laws and restricting superannuation to New Zealand citizens, what are your views on that? I’m not sure how I feel about the superannuation policy. I think we probably have been a bit too open with migration in the last 10 or so years, and that sometimes comes at the expense of the next generation.
I'm not anti-immigrant. I work in a public hospital with huge numbers of immigrants – they work hard. I just don't think that [successive] governments have looked after the New Zealand people very well.
Do you feel like the New Zealand health system is currently underfunded? It will be in places, but I think that our public health system doesn't work as efficiently as it could. It's not a money thing. You get traffic jams in the system.
I don't think building more hospitals would [fix it]. I think you’ve just got to make the system work a little bit better. Sometimes with public hospitals, they have quite old technology. For example, I used to work in a booking office for a women's hospital, and all the midwives would fax – and they still do it today – they fax in all these forms about the pregnant women under their care. And you would have booking clerks receiving faxes and doing data entry. And there were so many bits of paper coming through the fax machine they had to employ more people to enter the information.
So there's things like that, where more modern technology might speed up the process and cut back on spending.
But there's not enough doctors, really. You have young junior doctors who make less than some nurses, and they're doing 70- to 80-hour weeks, and the problem is that they're people. So if they're tired and they're overworked, they can make mistakes, and their mistakes can be quite serious. So you need more doctors.
What do you think of Labour's promise of a Medicard that would allow benefits such as three free GP visits per person? I didn't think it meant much because there's not enough GPs in the country. I mean, that's a problem. You can say there's free visits, but you've got to get an appointment. I just thought that policy was not the right way of using public money. I can see that they probably see it would be popular, but it's not the right answer.
NZ First have advocated that New Zealand exit the Paris Agreement. Are environmental issues high on your agenda? I wouldn't say massively high, but they're there. One of the things I struggle with, with politicians, is that they tend to be very anti or pro. Like take mining, sometimes you need the economic growth that mines provide, but you have to do it in an environmentally friendly way, and restore the land, and manage your waste products. Do things differently than they have been done in the past.
What's your view on the AI data centres proposed or planned around the country? An opportunity we should grasp, or something we should be wary of? I think, sadly, it’s an opportunity we need to grasp. Otherwise, we get left behind in the stone age. I can see that they say they use a lot of electricity, and that might push up electricity prices. But in terms of the technology, it’ll happen anyway. Doesn’t mean we need to go crazy with them. We don't need to go and build like 100 of them. Yeah, have them there. They are part of the 21st century.
Do you use AI in your work? A little bit. I have to write assignments and things for post grad study, and I use AI as a tool to see if I've got any inconsistencies or major issues.
Do you feel secure in your employment? I do, as a nurse, very secure [in the face of AI] because you still have to have someone be face-to-face with a patient.
Have you ever been tempted to move to Australia, where the pay for nurses is higher? Absolutely, but I'm 50. I've only been a nurse for three years – it was a career change. If I was younger, I probably would.
If I had a daughter who was finishing school, I'd probably say, look just go to Australia. Don't worry about New Zealand. There's a lot more opportunity over there. There's more money to be had. If you can get yourself set up, the lifestyle would be better. And the healthcare is better.
Do you think that all New Zealanders should learn te reo Māori at primary school? Yeah, I did at the schools I went to. I think it helped me to understand Māoridom a bit more. At least, a lot of basic Māori concepts are not foreign to me.
What do you think of the National Party's proposal to raise the superannuation age to 67? I'm fine with it because I figure nursing gives me a lot of career options and different areas I could get into, and I probably have to work till I'm 70 anyway. Just to afford whatever we need to do in life.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity. The views expressed do not represent those of TVNZ.
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