Waatea News: Māori Radio Station

More than 164,000 free counselling sessions for young New Zealanders represent thousands of moments when somebody struggling was able to reach for help without worrying about the cost — and new I Am Hope chief executive Nick Baylis says keeping that door open will be central to the organisation’s next chapter.

Baylis has taken over the chief executive role at I Am Hope Foundation, working alongside founder and mental health advocate Mike King as the organisation continues to grow its flagship Gumboot Friday counselling programme.

The leadership change comes with Gumboot Friday now firmly established as one of Aotearoa’s most recognisable youth mental health initiatives.

I Am Hope says more than 164,000 counselling sessions have now been funded. Its publicly available website currently describes the milestone more conservatively as more than 150,000 sessions delivered since 2019, meaning the 164,000 figure supplied by the organisation reflects its more recent count.

But behind the numbers sits a much larger challenge.

For many young people, particularly rangatahi Māori, finding help quickly enough can still be the difference between struggling alone and having somebody there when they need them.

Baylis takes the reins following King’s decision to step away from the chief executive position while remaining closely connected with the kaupapa he helped create.

The challenge for the new CEO is now to take an organisation built around a highly visible founder and ensure it can continue expanding sustainably while retaining the simplicity that helped make Gumboot Friday successful.

That model is straightforward.

A young person needs help.

They choose a counsellor.

Gumboot Friday pays.

The programme is available to anyone in New Zealand aged 25 and under, with both face-to-face and online counselling available. Young people can select from qualified professionals on the platform, with Gumboot Friday covering the cost directly rather than requiring the young person to navigate complicated funding processes.

That barrier-free philosophy is at the heart of what Baylis is inheriting.

One of Gumboot Friday’s defining differences is its attempt to remove some of the obstacles young people can encounter when seeking mental health support.

The service allows rangatahi to browse counsellor profiles and choose professionals based on factors that matter to them, including gender, language, cultural background, therapeutic approach and areas of experience.

That ability to choose can be particularly important in mental healthcare.

A counselling appointment is not simply a transaction.

Trust matters.

Feeling culturally safe matters.

Being comfortable enough to talk openly matters.

And for rangatahi Māori, access to someone who understands their cultural and spiritual background can make an enormous difference to whether they remain engaged with support.

I Am Hope is also clear that Gumboot Friday is not intended to replace the public mental health system.

The organisation describes its counselling service as a bridge between immediate need and existing government services, particularly when young people are facing long waits for care.

That distinction is important.

Charities cannot be expected to carry the responsibility of a national mental health system.

But when a young person reaches out for help, telling them to wait weeks or months can undermine the very reason they finally asked.

Gumboot Friday’s model attempts to intervene in that gap.

The organisation currently says the average mental health practitioner session it funds costs around $155, while its average monthly counselling disbursement over the previous 12 months has been more than $435,000.

That demonstrates both the scale of the programme and the scale of demand.

The need for accessible mental healthcare takes on even greater urgency when viewed through a Māori lens.

Ministry of Health data for 2018–2020 recorded a suicide mortality rate among Māori aged 15 to 24 of 30.5 deaths per 100,000, compared with 15.2 per 100,000 among non-Māori in the same age group.

Among young Māori males, the rate was even higher at 35.7 per 100,000.

Those figures underline an inequity that has persisted across generations.

And while statistics can describe the scale of the problem, they can sometimes obscure what each death actually represents.

A rangatahi.

A son or daughter.

A mokopuna.

A sibling.

A friend.

A kura, workplace, sports team, marae and whānau left carrying the loss.

That is why Baylis and I Am Hope’s focus on getting young people support earlier matters.

Mental healthcare cannot operate solely at the point of crisis.

The earlier anxiety, depression, trauma, grief or overwhelming stress can be addressed, the greater the opportunity to prevent distress escalating.

Gumboot Friday says its mission is to provide young people aged five to 25 with free and timely counselling, particularly when cost and waiting times would otherwise become barriers.

That philosophy also challenges a wider assumption about mental health services.

Young people should not have to become sick enough to qualify for help.

Gumboot Friday now receives public funding, but the organisation continues fundraising because it says demand for free counselling continues to grow.

The next national Gumboot Friday is scheduled for November 6, 2026, with communities, schools, businesses and supporters being encouraged to pull on their gumboots and raise money for counselling.

The organisation says donations deposited directly into the Gumboot Friday fund go towards counselling for young people.

For Baylis, that creates a dual challenge.

He must protect public confidence in the charity and demonstrate that funding is translating into measurable help, while also ensuring Gumboot Friday can respond as more young people seek support.

There is something powerful about the simplicity of Gumboot Friday’s model.

It does not promise to solve every cause of youth distress.

It cannot eliminate poverty, housing insecurity, family violence, discrimination or every other factor influencing mental wellbeing.

And it cannot replace a properly functioning public mental health service.

What it can do is make sure that when a young person decides they need somebody to talk to, money does not automatically stand between them and a counsellor.

That is the kaupapa Nick Baylis now inherits.

More than 164,000 counselling sessions demonstrate the scale already achieved.

But in a country where rangatahi continue to experience profound mental health inequities, the bigger question is how many more young people still need that door opened.

For I Am Hope and Gumboot Friday, the next phase is not simply about growing an organisation. It is about making asking for help easier, getting support earlier and ensuring no young person is left believing they have to carry everything alone.

If you or somebody you know needs immediate mental health support, free call or text 1737 at any time to speak with a trained counsellor. In an emergency, call 111.

#NickBaylis #IAmHope #GumbootFriday #MikeKing #YouthMentalHealth #MentalHealthNZ #MentalHealth #Rangatahi #RangatahiMaori #MaoriMentalHealth #HauoraMaori #SuicidePrevention #YouthSuicidePrevention #Counselling #FreeCounselling #MentalHealthSupport #EarlyIntervention #Whanau #WhanauOra #Tamariki #Mokopuna #HealthEquity #KaupapaMaori #Wellbeing #YouthWellbeing #GumbootUpNZ #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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Award-winning Māori singer-songwriter Stan Walker is calling on kura across Aotearoa to celebrate whakapapa, identity and whānau through his new waiata Family Tree — with students being offered the opportunity to perform alongside him during his upcoming symphonic shows.

The kaupapa takes one of the most powerful themes running through Walker’s music — knowing where you come from and recognising the people who shaped you — and puts it into the hands of tamariki and rangatahi.

Kura are being invited to embrace Family Tree through their own performances, using the waiata as an opportunity to explore the connections between generations and celebrate the whānau, whakapapa and communities that give young people their sense of belonging.

For participating students, there is also a major prize at stake: the chance to take that celebration from the classroom to the concert stage and perform live with one of Aotearoa’s most successful Māori artists.

For Walker, Family Tree is grounded in something much bigger than another music release.

It speaks to whakapapa.

The people who came before us, the whānau surrounding us today and the generations still to come are all part of the story carried through a family tree.

That makes the waiata particularly powerful for kura.

Music can provide tamariki and rangatahi with a way to explore identity that feels different from an ordinary classroom lesson. Through singing and performance, whakapapa becomes something that can be heard, felt and shared.

For Māori students, that connection can extend into pepeha, tūrangawaewae, iwi, hapū, marae and the intergenerational stories carried within whānau.

For students from every culture, the underlying question remains equally relevant — who are the people and places that helped make you who you are?

Rather than young people simply listening to Walker’s latest work, the kaupapa encourages schools to participate.

That provides an opportunity for choirs, kapa haka groups, music classes and wider school communities to bring their own interpretation and identity to Family Tree.

It also puts creativity back into the hands of rangatahi.

The strongest performances are not necessarily about perfectly reproducing the original recording. The opportunity is in allowing young people to connect the waiata with their own whānau and tell something of themselves through music.

In an increasingly digital world where young people are constantly exposed to global culture, there is significance in an artist of Walker’s profile turning the focus back towards family, identity and belonging.

For some participating kura, the kaupapa could lead to an unforgettable experience.

Students have the chance to be selected to perform live alongside Walker at his upcoming symphonic concerts, taking their voices from the kura environment onto a major professional stage.

For aspiring Māori singers and musicians, standing beside an artist who has built a career across Aotearoa and Australia could be transformative.

It allows rangatahi to see that careers in music and the creative industries are not distant possibilities belonging to somebody else.

Māori artists can headline major stages.

Māori stories can sit at the centre of contemporary music.

And whakapapa can be something celebrated publicly rather than left outside the performance space.

Walker has consistently incorporated Māori identity, whānau and personal experience into his career.

That visibility matters.

A generation of tamariki Māori has grown up seeing te reo Māori, tikanga and Māori identity increasingly present across mainstream music, television, sport and popular culture.

Initiatives connecting established performers directly with kura can strengthen that momentum.

They also create opportunities for students who might never otherwise imagine themselves performing before a major audience.

One young person taking part because their teacher encouraged them could discover a love of waiata.

Another could find confidence in performing.

Someone else may start asking their kaumātua about their whakapapa.

The impact does not necessarily finish when the music stops.

At the heart of Family Tree is a kaupapa Māori understanding that whakapapa is not simply a historical record.

It is living.

It connects people backwards to their tūpuna, sideways to their whānau and forward to generations yet to arrive.

That is why bringing the waiata into kura has the potential to become much more than a competition or promotional campaign.

It creates a conversation.

Who are our people?

Where do we come from?

What did our tūpuna carry so that we could stand here today?

And what will we leave for our mokopuna?

Those are enormous questions, but sometimes a waiata provides one of the simplest ways to begin answering them.

For the kura ultimately selected to join Walker, the reward will be spectacular — young voices performing alongside a leading Māori artist in a symphonic setting.

But the wider value may be found across every kura that participates.

It is tamariki singing together.

Rangatahi celebrating who they are.

Teachers opening conversations about identity.

Whānau hearing their children celebrate the generations that came before them.

And Māori whakapapa being placed proudly at the centre of contemporary Aotearoa music.

Stan Walker’s Family Tree may be the waiata that starts the kaupapa — but across the country’s kura, thousands of young people have their own family trees and their own stories waiting to be sung.

#StanWalker #FamilyTree #StanWalkerFamilyTree #Whakapapa #Whanau #Tamariki #Rangatahi #RangatahiMaori #Kura #KuraMaori #KuraKaupapaMaori #MaoriMusic #Waiata #WaiataMaori #TeReoMaori #TeAoMaori #MaoriArtists #MaoriIdentity #Tupuna #Mokopuna #KapaHaka #MusicEducation #AotearoaMusic #NZMusic #Symphonic #ManaMaori #TorangapuKore #WhanauOra #Aotearoa #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

The post Stan Walker Calls on Kura to Celebrate Their Family Tree — With a Chance to Join Him on Stage appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.

E tata mai ana ko Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, ā, ka hiwa ake ngā whakanuitanga ā te Mane, te 14 o Hepetema.

Ko Te Reo Towns te taumarumaru o te kaupapa i tēnei tau, hei whakanui i ngā hapori puta noa i Aotearoa, rātou mā e whakamānawa nei i te reo Māori, me te akiaki i te tokomaha kia whakamahi i te reo i roto i ā rātou mahi o te ia rā.

E karanga ana a Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori me Te Mātāwai ki ngā tāone, ngā whānau, ngā kura, ngā marae, ngā pakihi me ngā karapu hākinakina kia whai wāhi atu, kia kaha ake ai te kitea me te rangona o te reo Māori i ngā wāhi katoa.

The post Ngahiwi Apanui | Kia hiwa rā! Ko Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2026. appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.

E tātā nei a Minita Shane Jones i ētahi wāhanga o te ahumahi huakiwi, nā te nui o ngā rīpoata tūkino i ngā kaimahi manene e pupū ake ana i taua ahumahi tonu.

Hai tāna anō, ko te nuinga o ngā kaimahi i taua ahumahi he manene nō tāwāhi. Ko tana āki ki te kāporeihana, kia whai wāhi atu ngā rangatahi nō aua rohe ki ngā tūranga mahi.

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Up to 1,000 Wellington social housing tenants could benefit from an $8.54 million support package designed to prevent major housing upgrades from becoming a financial shock for people already managing tight household budgets.

Te Toi Mahana, Wellington’s largest residential landlord and a leading provider of affordable housing, is committing its $8.54 million Existing Tenant Support Fund to rental assistance for former Wellington City Council tenants who cannot access the Government’s Income Related Rent Subsidy.

Communications lead Seb Bishop joins Radio Waatea to discuss how the package will work, why the organisation believes gradual rent adjustments are necessary and what it could mean for tenants trying to remain securely housed.

Te Toi Mahana manages approximately 2,000 properties providing homes to almost 3,000 tenants across the capital.

At the heart of the initiative is Wellington City Council’s Housing Upgrade Programme Phase 2, known as HUP2.

The programme will upgrade 825 social housing properties across 213 buildings over the coming decade, with the aim of delivering warmer, drier, safer and more secure homes.

But there is a catch.

As properties are improved, their assessed market rents can increase.

Former council tenants already receive rents discounted according to their circumstances, averaging around 30 percent below market rent, but an increase in the underlying value of an upgraded property can still flow through to what tenants ultimately pay.

Te Toi Mahana’s fund is designed to prevent that increase arriving all at once.

Under the scheme, Wellington City Council provides assistance while tenants are temporarily relocated for upgrades and during the first year after returning to their improved homes.

Te Toi Mahana will then step in for another five years.

In the first year following the end of council support, the HUP2-related rent increase will be 100 percent subsidised. That assistance reduces to 80 percent in year two, 60 percent in year three, 40 percent in year four and 20 percent in year five.

If an upgrade would otherwise result in an additional $70 a week in rent, for example, that increase would initially be fully covered before being progressively introduced.

The intention is straightforward: improving someone’s home should not simultaneously put them at greater risk of being unable to afford it.

The $8.54 million fund will also protect some of Wellington’s oldest social housing tenants.

Te Toi Mahana inherited an Over-80s Rent Freeze from Wellington City Council, under which eligible tenants have their rent frozen for the remainder of their tenancy.

That policy is being phased out for future entrants, but existing recipients will retain their protection.

Tenants aged 75 or older on 6 November 2026 will also remain eligible for the rent freeze once they turn 80. After that group moves through the scheme, it will close to new entrants, with Te Toi Mahana intending to target future assistance according to individual financial circumstances rather than age alone.

The package was developed following engagement with tenants through community meetings, focus groups and an income survey completed by 220 tenants.

Te Toi Mahana says that information was used to model how assistance could be targeted without inadvertently reducing people’s eligibility for other financial support.

That is particularly important for social housing tenants because household finances can involve multiple forms of assistance, including accommodation support and rental subsidies.

A poorly designed change in one area can sometimes have consequences elsewhere.

For Māori whānau, kaumātua and low-income households, the wider issue is housing security.

A warm and dry home undoubtedly matters.

But so does being able to afford to remain in it.

Housing instability can flow into almost every other part of whānau wellbeing — health, education, employment, financial security and the ability of children to remain connected with their kura and community.

That makes the Te Toi Mahana initiative significant beyond Wellington’s housing portfolio.

It poses a wider question for social housing providers and governments undertaking major housing upgrades: how do you improve the quality of a person’s home without pricing the existing tenant out of it?

The Existing Tenant Support Fund originally contained $7.42 million when it was transferred from Wellington City Council to Te Toi Mahana in 2023.

The money originated from Better Off Funding provided to the council by the Department of Internal Affairs in 2022.

The fund was ring-fenced to provide rent relief and cost-of-living assistance to former council tenants unable to access the Income Related Rent Subsidy. After accruing interest, its balance had reached $8.54 million by August 2026.

Te Toi Mahana has broader ambitions for Wellington housing, including a goal of owning and managing an additional 500 affordable homes over the next decade. It has also been selected as one of the Government’s preferred delivery partners for the Housing Flexible Fund.

But for existing tenants, the immediate priority is considerably simpler.

It is certainty.

At a time when rent, kai, power, transport and other household costs continue putting pressure on low-income families, a sudden increase in housing costs can be the difference between coping and falling into deeper hardship.

The $8.54 million package recognises a basic principle of social housing: success isn’t simply measured by how many homes are upgraded. It is also measured by whether the people those homes were built for can still afford to live in them when the work is finished.

#TeToiMahana #SebBishop #SocialHousing #AffordableHousing #WellingtonHousing #HousingCrisis #RentRelief #RentSupport #CostOfLiving #HousingSecurity #HousingAffordability #HUP2 #Wellington #Poneke #Whanau #Kaumatua #WhanauOra #MaoriHousing #Tamariki #HealthyHomes #CommunityHousing #PublicHousing #Renters #CostOfLivingNZ #Hauora #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

The post $8.54m Rent Lifeline: Te Toi Mahana Moves to Protect Wellington Tenants From Sudden Increases appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.

Aotearoa may be welcoming international visitors back through its airports and celebrating a rebound in tourism, but behind the glossy visitor numbers another part of the economy is struggling — with nearly 3,000 hospitality businesses reported to have stopped trading in just one year.

New figures highlighted by RNZ paint a confronting picture for restaurants, cafés, bars and takeaway businesses, where rising costs and cautious household spending are squeezing operators from both directions.

It exposes what is increasingly looking like a two-speed recovery across tourism and hospitality.

International tourism and higher-value visitor spending may be recovering, but the businesses dependent primarily on New Zealanders opening their wallets every week remain under significant pressure.

And when thousands of hospitality businesses disappear within a year, the question becomes bigger than whether people are eating out less.

It becomes a warning about the health of the wider economy.

RNZ reports that close to 3,000 hospitality businesses have stopped trading during the past year, while liquidations involving restaurants, cafés and takeaway businesses have risen sharply.

That matters because hospitality operates close to the economic frontline.

These are businesses exposed almost immediately to changes in household confidence and disposable income.

When rent, mortgages, electricity, insurance and groceries consume more of a household budget, discretionary spending is often the first thing reduced.

Dinner out becomes dinner at home.

The morning café visit becomes an occasional treat.

Another round at the pub is skipped.

One family making that decision barely registers. Hundreds of thousands of households making it simultaneously can fundamentally change the economics of hospitality.

The difficulty for operators is that reducing prices to attract customers is not necessarily an option.

Hospitality businesses themselves have faced increases across food, wages, rent, electricity, insurance, finance and other operating costs.

That creates a brutal equation.

Customers want cheaper meals because their own household budgets are under pressure, while businesses need higher revenue simply to cover their costs.

Margins can become increasingly thin.

A café might still look busy at lunchtime, but a full room does not automatically mean the business is profitable.

And unlike some industries, hospitality has limited ability to absorb continual cost increases without eventually passing at least some of them onto customers.

This is where the two-speed nature of the recovery becomes important.

Tourism has historically been enormously important to New Zealand. Before the pandemic, the visitor economy was worth almost $40 billion, with international visitors spending substantially more per day than domestic travellers.

The return of international visitors therefore brings significant money back into hotels, attractions, transport operators, restaurants and tourism communities.

But those benefits are not distributed evenly.

A luxury lodge, major hotel or tourism business in an international visitor hotspot can experience very different trading conditions from the suburban café relying on local families, the takeaway shop serving its neighbourhood or the provincial restaurant dependent on residents eating out.

That means strong tourism numbers can coexist with significant stress across everyday hospitality.

The disappearance of thousands of businesses should also be considered as a broader economic indicator.

Hospitality is particularly sensitive to consumer confidence.

People may continue paying their mortgage, power bill and insurance even when money is tight because those expenses are unavoidable.

But spending at restaurants and cafés can be reduced almost immediately.

A prolonged downturn in discretionary spending can therefore show up in hospitality well before households feel comfortable describing the economy as recovering.

If consumers remain cautious despite improving headline economic indicators, that suggests the recovery is yet to reach many household budgets.

There is another dimension for Māori.

Hospitality and tourism provide employment and enterprise opportunities across many Māori communities, particularly in regional Aotearoa.

Māori tourism operators can offer experiences built around whenua, whakapapa, kai, culture and manaakitanga, while cafés, accommodation providers and hospitality businesses provide important employment for rangatahi.

A business closure therefore represents more than one company disappearing from a register.

It can mean jobs lost, suppliers losing customers and less money circulating through a community.

In smaller towns, losing a hospitality business can also remove an important social space.

The scale of closures will inevitably raise calls for government action.

But any intervention would need to address the causes rather than simply delay another round of failures.

Operators are likely to look towards the cumulative burden of compliance, energy, insurance, commercial rents, financing and other costs.

There is also a workforce question.

Hospitality businesses need reliable workers, but workers themselves need wages capable of meeting rapidly changing living costs.

Driving wages down to protect business margins simply transfers the economic pressure from the employer to the employee.

Likewise, permanently subsidising businesses that are no longer commercially viable is unlikely to provide a sustainable solution.

The more difficult challenge is creating economic conditions where household spending recovers while the cost of operating a business becomes manageable.

International visitors returning to Aotearoa is undoubtedly positive.

Tourism brings export earnings into the country, supports regional economies and sustains thousands of jobs.

But international arrival numbers cannot be the only measure of whether the visitor and hospitality economy is healthy.

A genuine recovery should also be visible at the neighbourhood café, the local restaurant, the takeaway shop and the small whānau business.

Because if tourists are returning while thousands of businesses serving New Zealanders are disappearing, Aotearoa does not have one hospitality story.

It has two — and the gap between them may tell us considerably more about the state of the economy than the number of people walking through the international arrivals gate.

#HospitalityNZ #TourismNZ #NZTourism #HospitalityCrisis #BusinessClosures #SmallBusinessNZ #MaoriBusiness #MaoriTourism #MaoriEconomy #PakihiMaori #CostOfLiving #CostOfDoingBusiness #BusinessNZ #RestaurantsNZ #CafesNZ #TourismRecovery #InternationalTourism #DomesticTourism #ConsumerSpending #ConsumerConfidence #Jobs #RangatahiJobs #RegionalEconomy #EconomicRecovery #NZEconomy #Election2026 #Whanau #Manaakitanga #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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Labour leader Chris Hipkins is putting workforce investment, Māori economic development and rebuilding public services at the centre of his Election 2026 pitch, arguing Labour can offer voters a credible alternative government — but his message to Māori also signals that a return to power would not simply mean restoring everything dismantled since 2023.

That distinction has become particularly clear on health.

Labour has indicated it will not reinstate Te Aka Whai Ora, the Māori Health Authority, in its previous form, despite having established the organisation while last in government and strongly opposing the Coalition Government’s decision to abolish it.

At the same time, Hipkins is promising new investment aimed directly at Māori employment and economic participation, including $21 million a year for Māori-led trades and employment training.

Together, the policies provide an early picture of the Labour leader’s strategy: rebuild public services and target investment towards areas of inequality, while attempting to convince voters Labour has learned from its previous term rather than simply promising to recreate it.

Labour’s Māori employment policy would provide $21 million annually for Māori-led training initiatives intended to connect people with trades, skills and employment.

The party says the programme could support up to 3,000 people, with funding available through organisations including iwi and Māori trusts, marae, Māori training providers and employers.

The emphasis on Māori-led delivery is significant.

Rather than expecting every job seeker to move through a centralised mainstream programme, the policy recognises that organisations embedded within Māori communities can be well placed to understand local labour markets, whānau circumstances and the barriers preventing people from moving into sustainable work.

For Hipkins, it also connects employment policy with a much larger Māori economic development argument.

The policy arrives as employment remains one of the most pressing issues confronting Māori communities.

When unemployment rises, Māori and particularly rangatahi Māori have historically been among the groups hit hardest.

That means the political debate cannot simply be about getting somebody into any available job.

The challenge is creating pathways into skilled, sustainable and reasonably paid employment that allow whānau to build financial security.

Trades training has the potential to connect that workforce with sectors including construction, infrastructure, housing and regional development.

But the ultimate test will be outcomes.

The number of people completing programmes, finding jobs, remaining employed and increasing their earnings will matter far more than the amount of money announced during an election campaign.

Labour’s position on Te Aka Whai Ora could prove considerably more contentious among Māori voters.

The Māori Health Authority was established under the previous Labour Government as part of the major restructuring of the health system and was intended to provide greater Māori influence over the commissioning and delivery of healthcare.

The Coalition Government abolished it in 2024.

Now Labour is signalling it would not simply recreate Te Aka Whai Ora as it previously existed if returned to office.

That creates an obvious question for Hipkins: if the old structure is not coming back, what replaces it?

For Māori health advocates, the issue has never been solely about the name of an organisation.

The deeper debate concerns Māori authority, commissioning power, accountability and whether Māori communities have meaningful influence over the services designed to address persistent health inequities.

Labour will therefore need to explain how its alternative model would deliver those outcomes.

Hipkins appears determined to present Labour’s 2026 campaign as more than a restoration project.

The party is attempting to position itself as a government-in-waiting focused on practical delivery across health, education, jobs, skills and other core public services.

That means acknowledging some previous policies will not return unchanged.

For Māori voters, however, that creates both an opportunity and a challenge for Labour.

Investment in Māori-led employment programmes could be welcomed by communities looking for practical pathways into jobs and economic independence.

But Labour will also face questions about whether its approach to Māori development retains sufficient commitment to rangatiratanga and Māori decision-making, particularly in areas such as health.

Hipkins is also campaigning on rebuilding and strengthening public services.

That message provides Labour with a clear contrast against a Coalition Government that has pursued spending restraint and significant changes across the public sector.

Labour’s challenge will be convincing voters that stronger services can be funded sustainably.

For whānau, the debate becomes much more tangible than competing fiscal numbers.

It is about whether someone can see a doctor, whether a graduate nurse can find a job, whether rangatahi can access training, whether whānau can find secure employment and whether public services are available when people actually need them.

Labour’s emphasis on Māori economic development also arrives at a time when the Māori economy encompasses iwi corporations, Māori landowners, businesses, entrepreneurs and a growing rangatahi workforce.

Government cannot create that economy.

But decisions around training, infrastructure, procurement, regional investment and access to capital can influence how quickly it grows and how widely its benefits are shared.

The important question for Labour will therefore be whether its policies simply fund programmes or help build lasting Māori economic capability.

Labour enters this election with a complicated story to tell Māori voters.

It can point to its previous investments and reforms, but it must also explain what it would do differently if given another term.

The decision not to restore Te Aka Whai Ora in its former form is perhaps the clearest example.

Labour is effectively asking voters to judge it not simply on what it created between 2017 and 2023, but on what it has learned since losing government.

And for Hipkins, credibility will depend on turning broad commitments around jobs, Māori economic development and public services into measurable promises.

For Māori voters, the question may ultimately be less about whether Labour can offer an alternative to the current Government and more about what kind of alternative it intends to be — who holds decision-making power, where the investment goes, and whether whānau can see the difference in their jobs, incomes and access to essential services.

Radio Waatea attempted to retrieve the latest linked reports while preparing this article, but the web research service did not return usable results. Specific policy details above are therefore limited to the information supplied for this story and should be checked against Labour’s final published Election 2026 policy documents before publication.

#ChrisHipkins #LabourNZ #Election2026 #MaoriEconomy #MaoriEconomicDevelopment #MaoriJobs #MaoriEmployment #RangatahiMaori #TradesTraining #SkillsTraining #WorkforceDevelopment #TeAkaWhaiOra #MaoriHealth #HauoraMaori #HealthEquity #PublicServices #MaoriLeadership #Rangatiratanga #Whanau #WhanauOra #CostOfLiving #Jobs #RegionalDevelopment #MaoriVote #MaoriPolitics #NZPolitics #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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Aotearoa cannot solve overcrowded hospitals and pressure on primary healthcare while newly qualified nurses struggle to find jobs and community nurses are paid less than their hospital counterparts, nursing student leader Dawn Blyth is warning.

Dawn Blyth, Tōpūtanga Tapuhi Kaitiaki o Aotearoa New Zealand Nurses Organisation national student vice-chair, says employing more graduate nurses is critical to retaining the workforce New Zealand has already invested years in training.

Her warning comes as pressure across the health system continues to intensify, with nurses raising concerns about overcrowding and unsafe staffing in emergency departments, including recent reports of extreme pressure at North Shore Hospital. NZNO itself has highlighted North Shore nurses declaring a state of emergency as the emergency department faced severe capacity pressures.

At the same time, Labour has unveiled an election policy promising every eligible New Zealand-trained graduate nurse a job within the health system.

For Blyth and NZNO, that commitment is welcome — but the union says fixing the workforce crisis will also require addressing the persistent pay gap between nurses working in hospitals and those caring for whānau in primary and community healthcare.

Labour’s new Graduate Nurse Job Guarantee would offer employment to every eligible locally trained registered and enrolled nurse.

Around 2,400 nurses graduate each year, with Labour proposing jobs of at least 0.8 full-time equivalent through existing hospital and primary-care employment programmes. The policy is costed by Labour at $525 million and would begin applying to eligible graduates sitting their final state examination from July 2026.

NZNO says the current situation has left many nursing students deeply uncertain about their future.

Blyth says traditionally as many as 90 percent of graduates moved into hospital employment, gaining vital mentoring and practical experience.

But NZNO says fewer than half of graduates over the past two years have received job offers, despite the Coalition Government promising to hire 1,800 graduates this financial year.

That creates an extraordinary contradiction.

Aotearoa is training nurses while simultaneously facing staffing pressure — yet some of those graduates cannot find their first nursing job.

The risk is not simply that graduates remain unemployed.

It is that New Zealand loses them altogether.

An NZNO student survey found more than 61 percent were considering moving overseas for work if they could not secure a nursing position in New Zealand.

For a country facing sustained healthcare workforce pressures, losing newly trained nurses to Australia or other overseas health systems represents both a workforce loss and a lost investment.

Nurses require years of education and clinical training before registration.

If New Zealand invests in that training but cannot provide graduates with a pathway into employment, other countries potentially receive the benefit.

NZNO believes hospitals should not be the only destination for the next generation of nurses.

Primary and community healthcare offers another pathway, particularly as Aotearoa tries to provide more treatment closer to where people live.

That is especially important for Māori whānau, rural communities and people managing chronic illnesses who need accessible healthcare without relying on hospital emergency departments.

Labour’s policy would double funding available for graduate nursing roles in primary and community healthcare.

But NZNO says there is already evidence that simply allocating graduate positions will not solve the problem.

Only around 250 of 400 available graduate primary-care places were filled last financial year, with NZNO saying financially stretched employers often lacked the capacity required to mentor newly qualified nurses.

Then there is pay.

NZNO says primary-care nurses currently earn around 11 percent less than their hospital counterparts, despite carrying comparable professional qualifications and responsibilities.

The union says nurses employed by some Māori and iwi health providers can earn even less.

Previous NZNO analysis has similarly found base hourly rates for primary and community nurses averaging around 10 percent below Te Whatu Ora nurses, warning the gap encourages nurses to leave GP, iwi and community services for better-paid hospital positions.

That creates another vicious cycle.

If primary-care services cannot compete for nurses, staffing becomes more difficult.

If staffing becomes more difficult, patients can struggle to access appointments.

And when people cannot get treatment early in their community, some eventually arrive at already stretched hospital emergency departments requiring more intensive care.

The consequences have particular significance for Māori.

Māori and iwi providers are often delivering services to communities experiencing some of the country’s greatest health inequities.

They cannot be expected to recruit and retain skilled Māori nurses if funding arrangements leave them unable to offer salaries comparable with the public hospital system.

For Māori nursing graduates, the decision can become particularly difficult.

Working within an iwi or Māori health provider may offer an opportunity to serve their own communities and practise within culturally grounded models of care — but graduates also have student loans, rent, mortgages and whānau responsibilities.

Expecting nurses to accept substantially lower salaries simply because they are committed to kaupapa Māori healthcare risks embedding inequity inside the very workforce expected to reduce it.

The debate comes against a backdrop of continued concern about hospital staffing and patient demand.

Health New Zealand’s current NZNO nursing and midwifery collective agreement runs from March 2026 to October 2027, while NZNO continues campaigning around safe staffing and workforce capacity.

The contradiction is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore.

Emergency departments need nurses.

Primary healthcare needs nurses.

Community providers need nurses.

Māori and iwi health organisations need nurses.

New Zealand is training nurses.

Yet some newly qualified nurses are struggling to secure the jobs that would keep them in Aotearoa.

Labour’s graduate guarantee would represent a significant intervention, but NZNO’s challenge goes further.

Creating graduate positions is one part of the solution.

Those jobs also need proper clinical support, mentoring, sustainable workloads and competitive pay.

And if primary healthcare is expected to carry more of the burden of keeping people well and out of hospitals, NZNO argues nurses working there cannot continue being treated as a cheaper workforce.

For Dawn Blyth and the next generation entering nursing, the equation is becoming increasingly simple: Aotearoa has spent years training them, the health system desperately needs them, and if we cannot give them a reason to stay, another country will.

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The post Train Them, Hire Them, Keep Them: Nursing Students Warn Aotearoa Is Losing the Workforce It Desperately Needs appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.

One of Aotearoa’s leading child health advocates is warning that entrenched poverty is not simply an economic or social problem — it is showing up in the health of our tamariki, with the consequences capable of following children throughout their lives.

Professor Emeritus Innes Asher, a leading paediatric respiratory specialist and long-time campaigner for child wellbeing, has spent decades highlighting the relationship between poverty, housing and preventable childhood illness.

Her central kaupapa is that every child should have the opportunity to reach their potential regardless of the household, community or economic circumstances into which they are born.

That principle becomes increasingly difficult to deliver when children grow up in households struggling to afford the basics.

The consequences of hardship do not stop at the household budget.

When families cannot consistently afford warm and healthy housing, nutritious kai, heating, transport or timely healthcare, those economic pressures can become health pressures.

For paediatric specialists such as Asher, that means poverty can eventually present itself through children requiring medical care.

Respiratory illness is particularly important because housing conditions, dampness, mould, overcrowding and the ability to adequately heat a home can all influence children’s respiratory health.

The result is a cycle where social and economic disadvantage can contribute to poorer health, while illness itself creates additional pressures for families through time away from school and work and the costs associated with accessing care.

For Radio Waatea, the issue carries particular importance because poverty and poor housing do not fall evenly across the population.

Where Māori whānau experience greater economic hardship, housing insecurity and barriers to healthcare, tamariki Māori can also face greater exposure to the conditions associated with preventable illness.

That means reducing disparities in child health requires looking beyond hospitals and doctors.

The conditions surrounding a child — their whare, household income, access to kai, education, transport and ability to receive healthcare — all contribute to their wellbeing.

For Māori, solutions also need to recognise whānau and community circumstances rather than treating the health of an individual child in isolation.

The wider message from child health advocates is that decisions made in Budgets and social policy can ultimately become health decisions.

Changes affecting household incomes, benefits, housing support and access to essential services can influence the conditions children experience every day.

Conversely, investment that improves housing quality, lifts family incomes and enables earlier access to healthcare can potentially prevent illness before a child reaches a hospital.

That shifts the discussion about poverty away from whether families should simply manage their money differently.

For health professionals, the question is what conditions Aotearoa creates for children to grow, learn and remain healthy.

Poor health during childhood can have consequences well beyond the immediate illness.

Children repeatedly missing kura because they are sick can lose valuable learning time. Chronic illness can affect physical development and participation in sport and community life, while pressure on parents can affect employment and household income.

Those disadvantages can compound.

It is why advocates such as Asher have consistently pushed for child wellbeing to be considered across government rather than being treated solely as the responsibility of the health system.

Preventing childhood illness can therefore deliver benefits extending into education, employment and the wider economy.

The debate comes at an important moment for Aotearoa as political parties argue over welfare, government spending, housing and the cost of living.

Those arguments can often become dominated by billions of dollars, deficits and fiscal targets.

But Asher’s work brings the discussion back to what those decisions can mean inside the homes of ordinary families.

A child does not control the rent their parents pay, whether their home is damp, how much income comes into the household or whether the family can afford heating.

Yet children can carry the health consequences of those circumstances.

That is why child poverty cannot be separated from child health.

If Aotearoa is serious about giving every tamaiti the opportunity to reach their potential, the measure of success cannot simply be whether the Government balances its books. It must also be whether children are growing up warm, healthy, adequately fed and able to thrive.

The linked Post article was not accessible through our research service while preparing this piece, so this article does not attribute specific claims or statistics to that report beyond the information supplied for this story.

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The post When Poverty Makes Children Sick: Professor Innes Asher Warns Aotearoa Is Paying the Price appeared first on Waatea News: Māori Radio Station.

Child Poverty Action Group is warning that removing access to Jobseeker Support for thousands of 18 and 19-year-olds risks shifting financial pressure onto families already struggling with the cost of living, while leaving some vulnerable rangatahi with nowhere else to turn.

CPAG Chief Executive Lyn Amos says Aotearoa has been moving in the wrong direction on child poverty and is questioning the Government’s decision to make parents primarily responsible for financially supporting many young people aged 18 and 19 rather than allowing them to access Jobseeker Support.

The policy represents a significant change in how the welfare system treats young adults, particularly those unable to immediately find employment after leaving school, training or another form of support.

For CPAG, the concern is that cutting an individual’s benefit does not make the financial need disappear — it can simply transfer that cost to their whānau.

The Government’s approach is based on the expectation that most 18 and 19-year-olds should receive financial support from their parents rather than the welfare system.

But CPAG is challenging whether that assumption reflects the reality facing every household.

For families already struggling with rent, mortgages, groceries, electricity and transport, supporting another adult without additional income can place significant pressure on the entire household.

There is also the question of rangatahi whose relationship with their parents has broken down, who cannot safely return home, or whose parents simply do not have the financial resources to support them.

That makes the debate about much more than welfare eligibility.

It becomes a question of who carries the financial risk when a young person cannot find work and their family cannot afford to support them.

The implications are especially significant for Māori.

Rangatahi Māori continue to experience substantially higher unemployment than the national population, meaning changes restricting income support for young adults have the potential to disproportionately affect Māori whānau.

For households already managing housing insecurity, low incomes and high living costs, another person becoming financially dependent on the wider whānau can spread hardship rather than resolve it.

It can also create difficult choices between paying rent, buying kai, keeping the power on and supporting a young person searching for employment.

Amos’ warning comes within a wider debate about whether New Zealand is making sufficient progress reducing poverty among children and young people.

CPAG argues the country has gone backwards and wants poverty reduction to remain a central measure against which government economic and social policy is judged.

The organisation’s concern is that policies reducing household income can have consequences extending well beyond the person directly affected.

Where an 18 or 19-year-old remains living in the family home, removing their independent income can affect the disposable income available to the entire household.

That can include younger siblings who are still captured by official child poverty measures.

The Government’s policy reflects a different philosophy.

Its approach places greater emphasis on parental responsibility, reducing long-term benefit dependency and moving young people towards employment, education or training rather than allowing welfare to become the default source of income.

The critical test will be whether employment and training opportunities are actually available to the young people losing access to Jobseeker Support.

Removing welfare assistance at a time when jobs are difficult to secure could produce a very different outcome from removing assistance when employers are competing for workers.

For rangatahi without work, savings or financially secure parents, the gap between the two could be significant.

CPAG’s warning ultimately challenges the idea that withdrawing a benefit necessarily reduces dependency.

In some cases, it may simply change who the young person depends on.

Instead of receiving assistance from the state, an unemployed 18 or 19-year-old could become dependent on parents, grandparents or wider whānau.

Where those households have sufficient resources, that may be manageable.

Where they do not, CPAG fears the result will be deeper hardship, increased housing instability and greater pressure across the household.

That creates a particularly important policy question heading into the election.

If Aotearoa wants fewer rangatahi dependent on welfare, then jobs, training and genuine pathways into independence will need to be available — because removing the benefit does not automatically remove the need.

Radio Waatea attempted to access the linked RNZ report while preparing this article, but the page was not retrievable through our research service at the time. The article above therefore relies on the policy details and CPAG position supplied for this story rather than adding unsupported details from the RNZ report.

#ChildPoverty #CPAG #LynAmos #JobseekerSupport #Rangatahi #RangatahiMaori #YouthUnemployment #MaoriUnemployment #Whanau #WhanauOra #CostOfLiving #PovertyNZ #IncomeSupport #SocialWelfare #Benefits #YouthEmployment #HousingHardship #Tamariki #SocialPolicy #Election2026 #NZPolitics #MaoriPolitics #Aotearoa #TeAoMaori #MaoriNews #WaateaNews #RadioWaatea

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