Voting in the three-yearly election for the three Council members elected by the profession closed on September 1, but the announcement of the results has been delayed due to the change of government. The election results cannot be released until the Minister of Health approves the candidates.
The Nursing Council has been advised this week that the new Minister of Health, David Clark, is expected to approve the three successful candidates before Christmas.
Just over 10 per cent of eligible nurses voted in the election. There were 16 candidates for the three positions, including the current chair, deputy chair and a council member.
]]>It was revealed today that a new deal – a six per cent pay rise spread over just under three years – was offered by the DHBs on November 8 after, it is understood, successfully seeking sign-off from new Health Minister David Clark for additional funding. The offer also includes an “agreement in principle” by the DHBs to the merit of NZNO’s separate pay equity claim with negotiations on pay equity due to begin in February.
The pay deal now on offer is for an initial two per cent increase, backdated to November 6, for the majority of nurses, midwives and healthcare assistants covered by the DHB/NZNO multi-employer collective agreement (MECA) and further two per cent pay rises in August 2018 and August 2019. In addition there is a lump sum payment of $350 for current NZN0 MECA members who are permanent DHB employees. Designated senior nurses and midwives are being offered a four per cent pay rise backdated from November 6 and then two per cent pay rises in August 2018 and August 2019.
The DHBs’ initial pay offer was made in mid-October, prior to the new Government being formed, and NZNO negotiators have now revealed that they recommended the 27,000 registered nurse, enrolled nurse, midwife and healthcare assistant members covered by the MECA to vote against that first offer in the series of ratification meetings due to start on November 22.
That initial offer had a six-month delay before the first pay increase and a 43-month term, rather than the 33-month term now being offered.
“But on November 8 NZNO was informed that the DHB CEOs were meeting with the Minister for approval to go beyond the financial parameter so that they could increase the offer and that the CEOs would manage/address the additional costs within their budgets,” said NZNO in a MECA bulletin update to its members, that was revised on November 17 to clarify what lead to the new offer.*
Lesley Harry, the NZNO’s industrial advisory, said it believed having a new Minister of Health had “provided the opportunity to push the parameters a little further” leading to the latest offer.
NZNO negotiators are telling members that they believe the latest offer is “a fair settlement that delivers on most key issues and providers processes with set timeframes to address others”. It also noted that the overall cost of the offer was greater than other recent MECA settlements in the DHB sector.
When the MECA negotiations began in June the union also tabled an historic pay equity claim for nurses.
The negotiating team said the DHBs had now agreed in principle that the work of nurses, HCA and midwives is predominantly performed by women, and had been “historically undervalued and subject to systemic undervaluation”.
The union said it had also reached agreement on the process and timeframes for resolving pay equity issues with negotiations due to begin in February “with the goal of achieving an outcome later in 2018”.
A major plank of the negotiations was also safe staffing and the current slow implementation by DHBs of the Care Capacity Demand Management (CCDM) tools that use evidence-based data to calculate how many nurses need to be employed on a ward to deliver safe, quality patient care. (See recent Nursing Review story on DHB announcing nursing staff boost due to CCDM.)
The negotiators said the DHBs had now agreed to a package of changes that it believed would strengthen the DHBs obligations to deliver CCDM.
*Article updated at 12.45 on November 17 to reflect correction to NZNO MECA bulletin.
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“Industry should know we are pretty serious about making sure this is dealt with,” Ardern told Mike Hosking on Newstalk ZB.
Her comments come after the Herald reported new Health Minister David Clark as not ruling out regulation or a tax. Ardern reiterated that position.
“We know we have got a problem. And I think people would be surprised by how much sugar is being placed in everyday items.”
Ardern said a sugary drinks tax was not the only answer, given the high sugar content across other processed foods.
“We want to work with industry to try and get that rate of use down. Try and encourage industry to do that themselves. But we are leaving all options on the table.
“We are making sure we use some of the options that still exist before that [considering a sugary drinks tax]. There are examples in the UK where they got salt down dramatically by working alongside industry. We should make use of those options.”
Professor of Population Nutrition and Global Health at the University of Auckland Boyd Swinburn said Labour was right not to rule out tough action including a sugary drinks tax.
“It is actually very refreshing to see a government who is prepared to look at the evidence and look at every possibility that’s on the table that’s been recommend. So this is a breath of fresh air,” Swinburn told Newstalk ZB.
Labour accused the last Government of inaction on the issue of obesity and accused some manufacturers of rigging a labelling system designed to flag healthy products to shoppers.
Health Minister David Clark said his preference was to work with the industry to develop a better front-of-pack labelling system, and to set firm goals to reduce sugar content in packaged food.
Clark said there was “growing evidence” around the effectiveness of a sugary drink tax, but such a step wasn’t a silver bullet because it was only focused on drinks.
“I want to talk with industry first before going down any track like that.”
One likely change will be to labelling on food packaging. Currently there is a Health Star Rating System that is meant to signal the healthiness of the product by the number of stars on the front of the packet.
Clark believes there is a flaw in the voluntary system, in which manufacturers can “cancel out” the effect added sugar and other unhealthy ingredients have on a star rating if the product contains healthier ingredients like grains.
He said he would seek further advice on whether the Health Star system would be retained, or a new front-of-pack system introduced.
“There are some anomalies in the current system. It seems strange that breakfast cereals can have some fibre in them and then suddenly they get a high star rating despite having a lot of sugar.”
Asked if front of package health labelling could be made mandatory, Clark said he would consider all options but wanted to get advice first, and talk to industry.
Labour’s previous health spokeswoman, Annette King, said she agreed with celebrity chef and healthy food campaigner Jamie Oliver that people would be more conscious of what they were eating if they knew the number of teaspoons of sugar or salt that is in their food, and Clark has said a label that displayed such information could be helpful.
“I think there is room for more explicit labelling to indicate the amount of sugar in food products,” Clark told the Herald.
“And I also want to have constructive conversation with industry about how they think they could reduce sugar content over time in products. Personally, I think the most constructive approach is to work with industry. But I have also indicated that if the result that we need isn’t achieved then we are prepared to regulate.”
Timelines would eventually be set, Clark said, but he acknowledged that wouldn’t be straightforward.
“My experience is industry prefers to have clear expectations and be able to manage its own destiny. So I’m hoping that there will be a constructive relationship there.”
The New Zealand Food and Grocery Council declined to comment.
Sue Chetwin, chief executive of Consumer New Zealand, said the current Health Star system had serious flaws and her organisation supported an overhaul, and wanted it to be mandatory across more products including frozen foods.
“What they really need to do is change the algorithm … a cap would be a simple way so once you got to a certain level of those bad foods then you couldn’t get a Health Star rating that was, say, above two or something like that.”
Another change supported by Consumer that will likely be made under the new Government is a requirement for country of origin labelling on single ingredient food such as fruit and meat.
Former Green MP Steffan Browning’s Consumers’ Right to Know (Country of Origin of Food) Bill is at select committee stage, having been supported at first reading by all parties except Act.
]]>Incoming Prime Minister Jacinda Ahern announced today that Manukau East MP Jenny Salesa will become the associate minister of health as well as the country’s first Tongan-born and Tongan-speaking Cabinet minister Also announced as an associate minister of health, but outside of cabinet, is US-born Green Party health spokeswoman Julie Anne Genter. (See Salesa’s and Genter’s full portfolio lists below).
Salesa, who has degrees in education and law from the University of Auckland, first came to New Zealand when she was 16 to further her education. Her commitment to warm, dry affordable housing springs from her family’s early experiences of homeless during their first 2-3 years in New Zealand which were spent moving from family to family in South Auckland and living in overcrowded conditions. She entered parliament in 2014 after more than 20 years’ experience worked as a health and education policy specialist in New Zealand and the US.
“I am immensely proud, as an immigrant and as a Pacific woman, to show that anyone who comes here can dream big and can be successful, through perseverance and hard work, at whatever they set out to do,” said Salesa. “New Zealand was a land of opportunity for me and as a Cabinet Minister I can play a part in ensuring it remains so for everyone who chooses to live here”, she said.
Salesa said she was honoured by her appointment in “this ambitious Labour-led Government, which has the mandate to tackle New Zealand’s housing crisis, the recent years of funding cuts and neglect in health and education and to ensure that economic growth delivers for all Kiwis.” Salesa, who entered parliament in 2014, said she was looking forward to briefings and then knuckling down to work.
Julie Anne Genter grew up in Los Angeles – where her father was a doctor and her mother a dietitian – and has been the Green’s health spokeperson for just over a year. Speaking to Nursing Review prior to the election about the Green’s health policy – that specifically mentioned free visits for under-18s to nurses as well as doctors – Genter said: “Of course we see nurses as vitally important contributors to health care and they need to be part of our policy solutions.”
She also said pre-election that the Greens wanted a sufficient funding increase to the Health Budget to allow for wage increases to keep pace with the cost of living. Other priorities were a mental health inquiry looking at not only investing more money but also effective early prevention and ensuring staff in acute wards were not overworked and struggling to cope with demand. “A lot of our health initiatives are outside the health portfolio like our transport and housing policies which would go a long way to creating healthier and happier towns, cities and environments.”
The UC Berkeley graduate studied in Paris before coming to New Zealand in 2006 where she gained a Masters of Planning Practice at the University of Auckland and worked as a transport consultant. She worked as a political and media advisor at Parliament before becoming an MP in 2011.
In June this year Genter’s Misuse of Drugs (Medicinal Cannabis and Other Matters) member’s bill, which would make it legal for the terminally ill and those suffering a debilitating condition to use cannabis with the support of a doctor, was drawn from the ballot.
MINISTERS of HEALTH
David Clark
Minister of Health
(Also Associate Minister of Finance)
Jenny Salesa
Associate Minister of Health
(Also Minister for Building and Construction, Minister for Ethnic Communities, Associate Minister for Education and Associate Minister of Housing and Urban Development)
Julie Anne Genter (Green Party)
Associate Minister of Health
(Also Minister for Women and Associate Minister of Transport)
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