Greens, MP, Huhana Lyndon is hitting out at the Minister of Health, Simeon Brown following a report into health service vacancies commissioned by the Public Service Association.
Māori patients have been left without vital cultural and clinical support as Health New Zealand deliberately restricted recruitment to reduce spending, a new PSA report claims.
The report, Vacant by Design, draws on responses from 1,800 Health New Zealand workers and documents lengthy delays filling vacancies across hospitals and health services. It found 76 percent of respondents said their teams waited more than a month for approval to recruit, while 85 percent linked unfilled positions to staff stress and burnout.
“I spoke to staff at Waitākere hospital just last week, they’re disappointed in the Minister for not creating a safe space for them to work. They’re tired and overworked, and there are still vacancies left to fill” says Lyndon.
A separate PSA paper examining the impact on Māori concludes the restrictions have deepened existing inequities and undermined the health system’s Te Tiriti o Waitangi obligations.
One Māori health worker said reduced staffing meant their team could now support only about one-third of the patients it previously reached. Others reported Māori patients and whānau were missing out on cultural tautoko, manaaki and wraparound care while in hospital.
The paper also details delays involving specialist Māori positions. Approval to recruit a kaumātua for a rangatahi inpatient service reportedly took 25 weeks, while vacancies for a Māori peer-support specialist in Waitematā and a smokefree facilitator in Northland remained unapproved after seven and 12 weeks respectively.
Since June 2024, vacancies have been subject to regional approval processes and limits on the number of full-time-equivalent roles that could be filled. Internal Health New Zealand material said managers should seek approval only when the risk of not recruiting was considered high.
Hauora Māori Services faced an additional restriction requiring recruitment approval from Health New Zealand’s chief executive. The PSA argues this represents a backwards step for Māori rangatiratanga following the disestablishment of Te Aka Whai Ora, the independent Māori Health Authority.
Public Service Association national secretary Fleur Fitzsimons said the Government knew understaffing was central to its savings programme.
A March 2025 briefing from Health New Zealand commissioner Professor Lester Levy and interim chief executive Dr Dale Bramley told Health Minister Simeon Brown that savings would be “underpinned by maintaining strong controls over recruitment”.
“The Minister of Health could have ordered every vacancy in our hospitals advertised and filled straight away,” Fitzsimons said.
Health New Zealand’s internal communications said patient safety and clinical delivery remained its focus and noted it had recruited thousands of additional nurses, doctors and allied-health workers in the year to March 2024.
The Government has also maintained that health spending is at record levels and that it is investing in frontline capacity. However, the PSA says the experience of Māori health workers shows recruitment controls have reduced access, increased waiting times and further entrenched inequity.