The sign said the union’s strike is disrupting more than 13,000 surgeries and appointments.
Photo: Felix Walton/RNZ
Health Minister Simeon Brown has left a defiant message for nurses demonstrating outside his office.
More than 36,000 Nurses Organisation (NZNO) members were striking 7am – 11pm, Tuesday and Thursday.
Those outside the minister’s office were met by a large sign with A4 size letter plastered across his windows. The sign said the union’s strike is disrupting more than 13,000 surgeries and appointments.
Health NZ estimates 2250 planned procedures, 3600 first specialist appointments and 8000 follow-up appointments will be postponed due to the strikes.
The strikes follow nearly a year of deadlocked negotiations between the union and Health NZ, which culminated in a 24-hour strike at the end of July.
Protesters outside Simeon Brown’s office in Pakuranga, 2 September 2025.
Photo: Felix Walton / RNZ
Young nurse and union delegate Sophie was picketing outside Brown’s electorate office in Auckland.
She said it wasn’t her first strike, and it was unlikely to be her last.
“I’ve only been a nurse for about two years and I think I’ve picketed maybe three or four times,” she said.
“It’s really disappointing that we still have to do this. Our message has been clear and the government just hasn’t been willing to deliver.”
Sophie said nurses were forced to cut corners to keep up with demand.
“Our nurses are getting burnt out, we’re putting ourselves, our licences at risk, doing things that we don’t deem to be as safe as they should be and our patients are at risk,” she said.
“We can’t provide the care that we want to, you know, we have to choose between which patients get a shower that day because we don’t have time to do them all and that’s just not fair.”
Nicola had been nursing for just under five years, but was already feeling burnt out.
“It’s really hard to come into work but even when you’re sick you feel like you can’t take time away just because you know that it’s going to severely impact your colleagues and your patients.”
In a statement on Tuesday morning, Brown said that Health NZ’s latest offer would give graduate nurses a total pay increase of $8337 dollars by June of 2026.
NZNO Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku said that wasn’t the whole story.
“He’s also said that new graduate nurses would be part-time,” she said.
“So we’re going to have a part-time workforce which means that they won’t get paid what they deserved and they will have to find secondary jobs to pay off their student loans or other debt.”
Nurses were striking due to concerns about staffing levels and safety. The latest pay offer was also dismissed as a “massive backward step”.
NZNO President Anne Daniels told RNZ that – in addition to pay equity and better staffing – nurses were demanding a pay rise in excess of three percent.
Protesters outside Simeon Brown’s office in Pakuranga, 2 September 2025.
Photo: Felix Walton / RNZ
“That is a pay rate that is above the cost of living. A less than 1 percent pay offer is a pay cut,” Daniels said.
But Health NZ’s chief clinical officer Dr Richard Sullivan told Morning Report, he had not heard the nurses union’s demand of a 3 percent pay increase until it was brought up on air on Tuesday morning.
He said Health NZ was ready to get around the table with the nurses.
“It was great to hear a number because we have been asking the union for some time about what it would take to settle this agreement. That’s the first time I’ve heard that number.”
Sullivan said he was not sure whether the nurses demands were based on addressing staffing levels or pay.
“It’d be interesting to get back around the table – and have that conversation – and see if we can find a way through this.”
]
Daniels earlier said management was refusing to give any guarantee on safe staffing levels, which were critical to patient care.
“It’s unprecedented to have two full-day strikes within one week.
“That reflects to me the extreme anger that our members have towards Health NZ and the government over not putting on the table something we can talk about.
“Our minister of health keeps telling us to come back to the table, but nothing new is put on the table – so what is the point?”
Hospitals and all emergency departments would remain open during the strike, with a small number of staff providing life-preserving services.
Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero, a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.