Throughout history, women who are healers, have been silenced. From the time of burning of wise women who helped and healed at the stake, to this very day, where the Coalition Government is being very deliberate in its choices of whose voices will be heard and privileged on the new Health Workforce committee. This is the second omission from important groups where nurses have the biggest workforce, the first being the Primary Healthcare Advisory Group.
Some may think it’s a long stretch from the burning of women to this day, but it was only 1951 when the legislation laws against witchcraft in England and Scotland where thousands of women lost their lives, were repealed. Many of us have also heard of the Salem witch trials that occurred in the 1700s in Massachusetts, USA. The right-wing male dominated (patriarchal) society where men have authority over women in all aspects of their lives, where men decide what is right or wrong, what can be done or said, and where women go and how they act, is once again on the rise.
Just recently, the Trump administration made an edict no longer considering nursing as a professional degree in a bid to reduce the cost of graduate programmes. Of all the graduate programmes chosen, it was a female dominated profession that was targeted. In this context women are having their rights ripped from them, as some politicians propose a legislative bill to subject women who have abortions to the death penalty or 30 years in prison.
The influence of today’s American politics on our country and the women in it, can be seen everywhere. From pay equity legislation changes that NZNO is challenging through the courts under the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act 1990, to the removal of Te Mauri o Rongo – the New Zealand Health Charter from the Pae Ora Act which was intended to create a safe working environment. Nurses, a female dominated profession, are under attack in this country too. The evidence is mounting.
On 1 September 2025, the media reported Te Whatu Ora/Health New Zealand had been ordered to apologise after the Ombudsman found it had acted unreasonably and unlawfully in withholding data that shows severe nurse understaffing in public hospitals last year. A study conducted by ASMS in Te Whatu Ora found that health and safety does not appear to be a priority over other competing goals such as cost-savings and productivity. Moreover, staff do not feel safe to speak up about their concerns and even less confident their concerns would be addressed if they did speak up. It is the Government that has directed Te Whatu Ora to put budget before people, and it is costing many in avoidable and preventable harm and death.
Relying on ACC data for treatment injury results is a gross underestimation of the extent of avoidable harm to patients in the health system. Not all people harmed in the course of their healthcare will report the harm nor make a claim to ACC, and of those that do ACC declines approximately 37% of treatment injury claims. Data is not just about numbers; it is about real people who are suffering.
In 2023, a coroner ruled that a preventable death of a woman at Waikato Hospital’s emergency department occurred while the ED was five nurses short. Another coroner’s case investigating the death of a man who fell and died in Taranaki Base Hospital emergency department, when it was fully staffed but with high workloads, found that the department, five years later, was now 15 FTE short. In court, Te Whatu Ora’s spokesperson said it was the nurse’s responsibility to conduct falls assessment in a failed attempt to shift blame from those who, under the Health and Safety at Work Act 2015, must provide a safe work environment.
A systematic and deliberate silencing of nurses and our concern for our patients’ safety, is being made visible by NZNO members who are standing up and fighting back. Appropriately, NZNO nurses are repeatedly striking for safe staffing to increase public understanding and support to overturn the “conscious decisions” to under resource the nursing workforce within the health system. And the public are with us. In a recent Talbot-Mills poll 83% believe that patients are at risk because there are not enough nurses and 94% of the public believe it is important for the Government to address nurse staffing shortages. Only a third believed that the Government values and listened to nurses.
Consequently, we are standing up for culturally safe, legislated and enforceable nurse to patient ratios underpinned by a fit for purpose CCDM in all health sectors. We will not be silenced, nor are we being made invisible despite all the deliberate government strategies to do otherwise. After two plus years of broken promises, women’s (nurses) mana being well and truly trampled on, and the people of this nation suffering increasing harm (not just in our health system), the only way forward is a change in Government. Enroll and vote here!
Election year, here we come!