{"id":139363,"date":"2025-11-17T10:58:06","date_gmt":"2025-11-17T10:58:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/139363\/"},"modified":"2025-11-17T10:58:06","modified_gmt":"2025-11-17T10:58:06","slug":"high-profile-ed-doctor-gary-payinda-is-labours-whangarei-candidate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/139363\/","title":{"rendered":"High-profile ED doctor Gary Payinda is Labour\u2019s Whang\u0101rei candidate"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">Payinda was originally from the US but immigrated to New Zealand with his wife nearly 20 years ago, with the pair raising their children in Northland.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">He worked in Whang\u0101rei Hospital\u2019s busy emergency department, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/northern-advocate\/news\/ed-doctor-says-helping-northland-patients-the-best-job-imaginable\/WP35JETRIVFTHBRBE6AX7WZJGA\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/northern-advocate\/news\/ed-doctor-says-helping-northland-patients-the-best-job-imaginable\/WP35JETRIVFTHBRBE6AX7WZJGA\/\">calling it the \u201cbest job imaginable\u201d<\/a> despite difficulties with a lack of staff.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">Payinda was also an assisted dying doctor and medical director of Surf Life Saving New Zealand.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">As a delegate for the Association of Salaried Medical Specialists, he became vocal against moves by the coalition Government to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/northland-ed-doctor-gary-payinda-speaks-out-on-dire-state-of-whangarei-hospital\/IMBR37HLMRCUHP3GD4CV7RJ6HU\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/northland-ed-doctor-gary-payinda-speaks-out-on-dire-state-of-whangarei-hospital\/IMBR37HLMRCUHP3GD4CV7RJ6HU\/\">\u201cput profits above people\u201d and privatise healthcare<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">Payinda said more and more people asked him to run for politics and he wanted to help unify the community to stand up.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cWhen the message is all about de-funding our public services and public gains, and privatising, I think we lose something there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">Payinda gave full support to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/business\/personal-finance\/tax\/labour-commits-to-capital-gains-tax-but-cant-say-if-interest-expenses-will-be-deductible\/NK7YTWFVPNCSTFVGLUUHCMSNSY\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/business\/personal-finance\/tax\/labour-commits-to-capital-gains-tax-but-cant-say-if-interest-expenses-will-be-deductible\/NK7YTWFVPNCSTFVGLUUHCMSNSY\/\">Labour\u2019s capital gains tax<\/a>, which will be used to fund three free GP visits a year for every New Zealander.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">This <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/labour-gains-support-after-capital-gains-tax-announcement-but-not-enough-to-form-government\/DFHASWAHHJGW5E2QZ6PPDNU43U\/\" target=\"_self\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" title=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/nz\/politics\/labour-gains-support-after-capital-gains-tax-announcement-but-not-enough-to-form-government\/DFHASWAHHJGW5E2QZ6PPDNU43U\/\">policy will be a game-changer in healthcare<\/a>, helping people before their conditions worsen and they end up in hospital, he said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">\u201cIt will prevent suffering, save lives, reduce pressure on our hospitals and keep people healthier.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">Payinda is one of the first new candidates to be announced by the Labour Party, after he succeeded in a selection process against M\u0101ori health leader Louise Kuraia.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\">His nomination was supported by one-term Whang\u0101rei MP Dr Emily Henderson on Monday.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wzdDHKkU\" style=\"display:none\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nzherald.co.nz\/northern-advocate\/author\/denise-piper\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Denise Piper is a news reporter<\/a> for the Northern Advocate, focusing on health and business. She has more than 20 years in journalism and is passionate about covering stories that make a difference.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Payinda was originally from the US but immigrated to New Zealand with his wife nearly 20 years ago,&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":139364,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[9526,1558,19956,186,7061,13973,15974,35369,14236,12515,185,27699,3193,71084,111,43,139,69,94835,28638,7248,58423,7228,1869],"class_list":["post-139363","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-zealand","tag-another","tag-been","tag-candidate","tag-currently","tag-doctor","tag-ed","tag-emergency","tag-gary","tag-held","tag-highprofile","tag-is","tag-labours","tag-medicine","tag-nationals","tag-new-zealand","tag-news","tag-newzealand","tag-nz","tag-payinda","tag-reti","tag-seat","tag-selected","tag-shane","tag-whangrei"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139363","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=139363"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/139363\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/139364"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=139363"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=139363"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/nz\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=139363"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}