As Simeon Brown spoke, nurses turned away

Wednesday, 17 September 2025

Nurses Organisation delegates turned their back on Health Minister Simeon Brown during his address to their conference.

Dozens of nurses turned their backs on Health Minister Simeon Brown in a show of frustration over staffing shortages, as he made an address at their union’s annual general meeting.

It came as their union, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZN), released a report that they said found hospitals were short an average of 587 nurses every shift last year. It was based on analysis, from Infometrics, of Te Whatu Ora (Health NZ) data from 1.69 million shifts between 2022 and 2024 in 59 public hospitals.

NZNO chief executive Paul Goulter said the findings, released on Wednesday morning, put paid to Te Whatu Ora’s claims that hospitals were not short-staffed.

Nurses walked off the job two week ago over the issue but Brown, in his address, said the strike action was “hurting patients”.

“Thousands of patients have had care delayed, hips, knees, cataract operations delayed. And ultimately, that is a very real human cost, which I believe needed to be called out,” he said.

Nurses turning their backs on Simeon Brown during his speech to New Zealand Nurses Organisation annual meeting.

Acknowledging the differing opinions in the room, he said, “Clearly not everyone in that room agrees with what I may have said. That's what happens in a free and democratic society. I welcome it.”

Brown said there were “tough conversations to be had” over safe staffing, but would not commit to hiring enough nurses to meet the shortfall - saying this was in the purview of Health NZ.

“We need to be hiring more nurses at Health NZ. The report released today shows that the situation has improved, but there is clearly more work to do,” he said, referencing workforce shortages that the union has repeatedly flagged.

Brown said thousands of nurses have been hired since the government came into office, and additional funding has been allocated to support nurses entering primary and community care. Incentives include $15,000 for hiring graduate nurses in urban areas and $20,000 in rural locations.

He would not concede that many shifts have had an unsafe level of staffing, or commit any extra funding beyond the $16.68 billion for Health NZ in the past three budgets.

Health NZ said it would look over the report released by the union.

“We value the significant contribution of our nursing workforce in helping to care for the health of New Zealanders and their communities, and we look forward to considering NZNO’s report,” the agency’s national chief nurse, Nadine Gray, told Stuff.