The Government has added 32 new health sector roles to the Straight to Residence pathway of the Green List to help prepare New Zealand’s health system for the coming winter, the Immigration Minister and Health Minister announced today.

“The world is currently facing a global health worker shortage, so it is vital that New Zealand’s immigration settings present a competitive offer to attract health workers to our shores,” Michael Wood said.

“We need more qualified people to help us deliver on our record health investments and help improve access to good healthcare in New Zealand.”

Wood said the Government has “listened” to the health sector and these changes “ensure that immigration settings are as helpful and competitive as possible.”

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins said the Government acknowledged more needed to be done to attract skilled workers from overseas, and that immigration was not an unnecessary barrier to health workers.

“We acknowledge more needs to be done and that includes attracting skills from overseas,” Hipkins said.

Dr Ayesha Verrall said when she became Health Minister the workforce was “one of my three key areas of priority” and today’s announcement is a “significant step in attracting more people to come and work in our health system”.

“The 32 health roles being added to the Green List’s Straight to Residence pathway span across the wider health sector from enrolled nurses, nurse practitioners, dentists and dental technicians, MRI scanning technologists, paramedics, optometrists and pharmacists to counselling,” Verrall said.

 “The Green List now has a total of 48 health roles, all of which are nationally important and all of which will be on the Straight to Residence pathway.”

Nurses had been controversially excluded from the Government's straight-to-residence Green List and must instead work in the profession for two years first. Photo / 123RF

The list already includes midwives and registered nurses, Verrall said, which were added to the Green List in December. Last month alone we saw almost 900 overseas nurses apply to register to work in New Zealand.

Nurses had earlier been controversially excluded from the Green List.

“These immigration settings will be among the most competitive in the world, and are yet another positive step, along with better wages for nurses and immigration support, to influence the number of health workers who come to New Zealand,” Verrall said.

“These changes are in addition to the steps we have taken to make pay fairer for nurses working in our health sector, some of whom saw up to a 15% increase to their base pay last month.

“We want to train and retain as many local health workers as possible but we have immediate shortages we need to address and today’s changes alongside improvements to pay will go some way to removing barriers to working in New Zealand.”

Transport sector agreement to be extended to skippers and deck hands

Wood said following a discussion with the sector skippers and deckhands will be added to the transport sector agreement.

“In our seaside cities, ferries form an essential part of the public transport system, so it is critical that ferry service operators have access to key workers to enhance the reliability of these services,” Wood said.

“The market rate for skippers is already above the median wage. Operators will need to continue to pay migrant worker skippers the market rate and migrant worker deckhands will need to be paid at least the median wage to utilise this sector agreement.”

Wood said the Government is providing a time limited pathway to residence for skippers piloting boats essential to public transport routes, our supply chain, along with tourism operators and other operators who use skippers and deckhands.

“Final details of the transport sector agreement will be confirmed shortly, with implementation expected to begin from late May,” Wood said.

Cabinet reshuffle: Willow-Jean Prime promoted

Hipkins also announced a small Cabinet reshuffle at his post-Cabinet press conference today.

He said MP for Northland Willow-Jean Prime would join Cabinet, this meant for the first time in history half the people in Cabinet would be women.

“Clearly, it was nice to have a Cabinet that reflected the New Zealand population,” Hipkins said.

Finance and Expenditure Committee committee chairwoman Rachel Brooking will be a Minister outside Cabinet, picking up Oceans and Fisheries.

There was an empty place around the 19-person Cabinet table thanks to Hipkins’ decision to fire Stuart Nash after he leaked confidential Cabinet information to two donors.

Hipkins gave Nash’s Economic Development and Forestry portfolios to Megan Woods on an acting basis. David Parker was given Oceans and Fisheries, also on an acting basis.

Covid-19 settings to remain for next two months

The Government was also looking at Covid-19 settings, including potentially dropping the seven-day isolation requirement, although this seems unlikely.

Hipkins said the Covid-19 settings would remain the same for the next two months.

They had asked for specific advice on testing to return to work.

It was a “difficult balancing act”, Hipkins said.

The isolation period not only relieved the health system but also meant there were not labour market issues. Some of the biggest issues in the education sector last year was teachers being off sick.

Hipkins said international experiences were considered, and the country was heading towards a situation where Covid-19 was normal.

“We are heading towards a point where Covid-19 is becoming normal,” he said.

“Pretty much all of the other restrictions are gone now. We are moving to that era where Covid-19 is just one of those things the Ministry of Health manages.”

Health Minister Dr Ayesha Verrall. Photo / Jed Bradley

On health system preparation, Hipkins said despite increasing capacity New Zealand was not yet at a point where it could treat Covid-19 as yet another illness.

Hipkins said he believed the health system was in a better place now than it was pre-Covid but a major challenge remained in the workforce, which he said was being addressed in today’s announcement.

Hipkins earlier told RNZ’s Morning Report the Government would “consider all of the ins and outs of removing restrictions, and the risk associated with that. And we’ve also then got to look at the benefits of keeping restrictions in place as.”

Hipkins noted that removing restrictions may alleviate labour shortages for some businesses, as workers would no longer be required to isolate.

The Prime Minister said very few Covid-19 restrictions are still in place, but isolation is one of them.

Nato: PM invited to meeting in Lithuania

Hipkins confirmed he had been invited to a Nato meeting in Lithuania this year but had not made a decision on attending yet. He hoped to announce a travel programme in the next week.

Hipkins said Nato played an important role and New Zealand worked with like-minded countries on certain issues, including the Russia-Ukraine war.