Collins would not say whether it would be acceptable to accept more people into New Zealand, but disputed the idea doing so would automatically mean increased risk.
“They’re certainly not cutting them from New Zealand are they.
“Clearly … we have to choose. Do we want to have the situation where we have 2000 beds left vacant?”
“We’ve said all along people should be tested before they get on planes to New Zealand, there should be saliva testing every day, there should be all of these steps in place and the government quite simply is now just starting to talk about it.
“Don’t cry if we don’t have enough nurses when we’ve got all these MIQ spots. We’ve got nuses from overseas who are living and working in New Zealand who were promised they could bring their families with them, now they’re told, sorry you don’t even get a look in.
“Now Australia’s saying ‘come to us and we’ll sort it out’.”
The union, the Nurses Organisation (NZNO), told RNZ they were still hopeful nurses would not have to walk off the job, but they believed they had the full backing of the public.
NZNO manager Glenda Alexander said there was a gap of at least 15-20 percent between female nurses and their male counterparts in similar roles with similar qualifications.
Collins was critical of the government over pay equity, but said National also supported pay equity for nurses.
“The government went into this with the pay equity scheme and idea and they campaigned on it and they’ve got to deliver on their promises.
“We are saying it needs to be fair pay and it also needs to be affordable and what’s not affordable is us losing more nurses to Australia with no nurses coming in at the moment and half a billion dollars extra on administration, bureaucracy, and a redo of the entire public health system in a pandemic when we’re losing nurses and doctors.”
DHBs said their focus remained on finding a way to settle the collective agreement with the nurses organisation.
Spokesperson Dale Oliff said DHBs spent two days with the organisation and an independent mediator last week discussing options for settling the pay talks, and while nurses had endorsed a strike proposal, DHBs believed they can come up with an offer to settle the pay talks.
RNZ
