4. BARBARA STEWART (NZ First) Link to this
to the Minister of Health
Does he believe that the New Zealand Nurses Organisation multi-employer collective agreement has had an impact on those providing aged residential care; if so, will he be ensuring district health boards are cognisant of this when quantifying the impact with the aged residential care sector?
Hon JIM ANDERTON (Associate Minister of Health) Link to this
I accept that there is some potential for the district health board, New Zealand Nurses Organisation, and midwifery multi-employer collective agreement to impact on non-Governmental providers of health and disability services. The quantum of any impact will be determined by the outcome of negotiations between employers and employees.
Is the Minister aware that district health boards refuse to accept that salary inequalities between district health board nurses and aged-care nurses, resulting from the New Zealand Nurses Organisation multi-employer collective agreement, are causing severe recruitment and retention problems in the aged-care sector; if so, what action does he intend to take?
This Government has put in $23.9 million to provide for inflationary and demographic pressures in the sector. Because of the assistance that New Zealand First is giving to this Government, a further $17 million a year will be provided from 2006-07 for aged residential care services. That seems to me to be one of the most significant increases in this sector, even though I am not in any doubt that there are labour and skills shortages in it. The truth, of course, is that everyone in this House knows that the real problem facing New Zealand now is not job shortages but skills shortages, and that is another story altogether.
Sue KedgleyIs he aware that in 2002 the then Associate Minister of Health Ruth Dyson directed that regulations relating to minimum staffing levels in aged care be made; if so, why is the Ministry of Health now backing away from that commitment and recommending that there be no regulations at all for minimum staffing levels, given that a New Zealand Nurses Organisation audit of aged-care and dementia facilities has recently found that many aged-care homes habitually staff way below the number of registered nurse hours that the indicators say are safe?
I must admit I personally find it very hard to believe that any district health board or the Ministry of Health would issue an edict that states that the staffing levels and qualifications of people looking after the elderly do not matter. If the member has such a missive, I will certainly undertake to have a look at it, and make sure the officials report to me or the Minister of Health. But I repeat that this Government is cognisant of the fact that there are difficulties in this sector. It is about to put into this sector, in combination with our colleagues in New Zealand First, somewhere around $40 million extra, which is the largest cash injection in recent memory that I am aware of.
Dr Jonathan Coleman Link to this
When will home-care workers receive the travel allowance money that Labour promised them before the election, taking into consideration the fact that the situation is so bad that on the day petrol went up by 6c a litre, one provider lost 300 staff; what is taking so long?
Of course, the Government is aware of those kinds of pressures, and, as I said, it has been putting money into this sector—both the public and the private areas. It never ceases to amaze me that day in, day out the National Party members get up in this House and ask the Government to spend more money, when they actually promised to reduce the revenue that provides the Government with money to spend. When those members explain that to us, will they please put it in writing so that I can frame it and put it up in my office.
Does the Minister perceive any contradiction between himself and his ministry acknowledging that the New Zealand Nurses Organisation multi-employer collective agreement has increased aged-care providers’ costs, and the district health boards denying that the multi-employer collective agreement has increased providers’ costs; if not, why not?
The truth is that delivering fair pay to public sector workers is one of the priorities of this Government, and, of course, other sectors—
We are the employer in the public sector. Members opposite should go out and tell all the private sector employers that they are in touch with that they intend to increase the pay and conditions of their workers, if they want to do that. This Government is responsible for public sector workers. As a good employer, we have provided that, and we hope that other sectors will follow our lead. But the member should remember that the Government has already committed over $2.2 billion to the primary health sector, and $40 million to the sector that I have just talked about, and that over the last 6 years, since we have been in Government, $6 billion a year extra has gone into the health system, which could never have been managed if the National Party’s tax cut promise had been realised.