QUESTION: SUE KEDGLEY (Green) to the Minister of Health: What, if any, provision have district health boards been asked to make for pay increases for nursing staff in the next financial year, and will they receive any extra funding from the Government to provide nursing staff with pay rises? ANSWER: Hon ANNETTE KING (Minister of Health): Most boards have settled nurse pay negotiations through various multi-employer contracts. One contract has been settled to at least June 2005, and it has been done within the board's 3-year funding package provided by the Government. It is the Government's expectation that any wage increases the boards negotiate will be met from within the funding package they receive. Sue Kedgley: Given the statement made by the Associate Minister of Health to petitioners outside Parliament today that the Government is committed to progressing pay equity for nurses, can the 9,000 nurses from 21 district health boards around the country who signed that petition presented to Parliament today expect pay equity next year, and if not next year, when? Hon ANNETTE KING: The Government has established a pay and employment equity task force, and the Nurses Organisation is represented on that task force. Decisions on pay equity, including any possible funding for the 2004 Budget, will be made in response to the task force report, which will set out a 5-year action plan. Steve Chadwick: What nurse recruitment initiatives has the Government put in place? Hon ANNETTE KING: We do take the issue of recruiting and retaining nurses very seriously, and two recent examples that have been put in place have been scholarships that will reduce the cost of training for nurses, and also the reintroduction of training for enrolled nurses — something that was scrapped in 1991 but brought back by this Government. Dr Lynda Scott: How can New Zealand's health service afford to increase pay for our valuable front-line nursing staff, when in the last financial year the increased bureaucracy and duplication caused by having 21 district health boards led to a deficit of $184 million? Hon ANNETTE KING: I am pleased to tell that member that we managed not only to increase nurses' salaries over the last 3 years but also to decrease the deficit. In fact, the expected deficit for this financial year is $80 million. That will be a lot better than the previous Government ever achieved. Pita Paraone: Will she consider introducing compulsory nurse-patient ratios as a strategy to encourage nurses back into the profession and to improve patient outcomes in hospitals? Hon ANNETTE KING: No, there is no work on actual patient-nurse ratios, but we have introduced through Magnet New Zealand a programme whereby we look at all the conditions that nurses face within a working environment. The programme is now being put in place in the Hutt Valley, and the organisation is looking to put it in place right across the district health boards. It has had wide support from nurses, and it addresses not only ratios but also the entire environment in which a nurse works. Heather Roy: Is it Government policy to provide a pro-rata increase to district health boards to cover the extra costs that will result from 4 weeks' leave for nurses; if not, why not? Hon ANNETTE KING: No, because nurses in the district health boards have 20 days' paid leave plus 2 days' recreation leave already. Sue Kedgley: Given that fair pay for nurses would cost less than 10 percent of this year's fiscal surplus, how does she feel nurse petitioners will feel about her refusal to commit to pay equity for them, particularly the nurse who said outside Parliament: "Nurses and midwives are tired and angry. We are understaffed, overworked, and many suffer burnouts. Our patient loads are frequently too high and we are tired of being told that there is no money in the kitty every time there is a pay round." Hon ANNETTE KING: I would say to nurses that they have finally got a Government that has committed itself to pay equity. That has not been done by any other Government — [Interruption] I tell those members on the Opposition side of the House who are shouting that they reduced nurses' salaries when they were previously in Government. They did not increase them. Nandor Tanczos: Is the Minister aware of comments by the head of Christchurch polytechnic school of nursing, Cathy Andrew, who said that some years she has watched 90 percent of her graduates leave the country in search of better pay and conditions and to pay off their student loans, and what will this Government do to address that situation? Hon ANNETTE KING: The member may not have heard, but I did say in answer to Steve Chadwick that one of the things that this Government has introduced is scholarships in the health sector — Gerry Brownlee: How many? Hon ANNETTE KING: There will be 500 scholarships next year. That is the beginning of decreasing the cost of training to nurses. There is more being done towards that by my colleague Steve Maharey, in terms of student loans. But I think nurses recognise — [Interruption] Mr SPEAKER: I have had enough. There are too many interjections. The Minister will now conclude her remarks in silence. Hon ANNETTE KING: I know that nurses recognise that this Government has done a considerable amount in the time that we have been on the Treasury benches. Sue Bradford: What is the Minister's response to staff nurse Carol McCord, who, on $38,000 a year, has been stuck at the top of her salary scale for over 20 years, and will the Government budget for a nurses' pay rise next year — yes or no? Hon ANNETTE KING: I already replied in my first answer to Sue Kedgley that pay increases for nurses will be negotiated by nurses. Every year that we have been in Government they have negotiated pay rises. Nurses are looking to the future in terms of pay equity, and work on that is being done through the establishment of a task force, of which they are a part. It is prepared to work through those issues and ensure we address them fairly, not only for nurses but for all those who work within the health sector.