October 18, 2025 • 9 mins
The Public Service Minister has penned an open letter to New Zealanders before a major mega strike this coming week.
An estimated 100,000 workers across the health and education sector plan to walk off the job on Thursday.
Minister Judith Collins says the strikes will impact children and families and believes they appear politically motivated.
She says primary school principals have taken a more commendable approach.
"They've been able to reach a very good settlement by staying at the bargaining table, and this seems to be very much focused on politics, rather than the actual outcomes."
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Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks AB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Public Service Minister Judith Collins has fired a shot ahead
of the mega strike planned for Thursday. The strike will
see an estimated one hundred thousand public sector workers walk
off the job as they seek better pay and conditions,
and an open letter in the HERED on Sunday this morning,
Minister Collins has acknowledged the impact the strike has on
the community and take an aim at what she calls
politically motivated unions. Minister Collins joins me, now, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Judith, I'll got more in Francesca, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You for your time. I believe you are out of
the country, so I appreciate it. This tell me why
have you released this letter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, I think it's important for everyone who's affected to
know the facts about what's going on. And what's very
clear to me is that the unions have not told
all of their members quite what is actually going on,
and we need to get the information out there.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Okay, So is this aimed at the unions or those
who are striking, Well.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
This letter is actually aimed at everybody who's affected, and
particularly those patients who will not be able to get
their surgery for those parents in school students who are
not going to be able to operate as usual, and
given that we are coming up to very serious exams
(01:30):
for our students, are particularly those in the latter years
of their schooler, this is very important that people understand
what's really going on.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Do you believe do you think that they're not being
informed well by whether it's the doctors, the nurses, the
teachers explaining to their community what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, we've certainly are aware that not everybody has been told.
And we also know, for instance, that you cannot have
agreement if you can't get some dialogue rather than disruption.
And when we've seen that they teachers bargaining Collective Bargaining Union,
(02:10):
that they've been able to reach a settlement and that's
hundreds of primary school principles, they've been able to reach
a very good settlement by staying at the bargaining table.
And this seems to be very much focused on politics
rather than the actual outcomes.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Do you think this letter will encourage that dialogue?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And I hope so, I hope people understand that this
sort of mega strikers they're calling it that that is
actually just hurting the people who are, in many cases
the most vulnerable people, those needing operations, those needing to
be in hospital, those school students who have already missed out,
(02:50):
are an awful lot of their education. And when I
look at some of the offers on the they're actually
very good, particularly when you consider that the public sector,
in terms of a public sector wages have gone up
two point eight percent in the last year on average,
while the private sector's gone up two point three percent
(03:10):
of the last year. And it's the public sector that's striking,
not the private sector.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Minister, and the letter you claim the number one item
on the agenda for the PPTA was Palestine. Can you
talk me through that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yes, well, it's an email from the union to the
minister's office saying these are the issues that they wanted
to discuss and number one on that was Palestine. And frankly,
that's got nothing to do with the education of our students,
nothing to do with better outcomes for teachers in New Zealand.
(03:43):
It's all to do with politics. And I think it
shows exactly what's going through the heads of those making
those decisions.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So do you think that that came from the unions.
Do you think that represents the teachers?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously no, because the email came from the union, not
from the teachers themselves. I don't think the teachers would
know that this was happening. They would be thinking that
the union should be there trying to get a fair
and reasonable settlement for them with the least amount of disruption,
and instead they've got this sort of behavior from a
(04:19):
union that should know better, and they're just playing politics.
I mean, what's the teacher's arrangement's got to do with Palestine?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
In the letter, it says there's no room to pay.
There's no room to move in pay negotiations. The government
has a limit. As we all know, there's only so
much money to go around. So are you basically saying
there is no more room to move when it comes
to money? And these within this dialogue.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Were very clear is that these offers are actually in
many ways quite generous given what the private sector is
dealing with, and given that all the money comes from
to pay anything comes from tax pay dollars or borrowed money,
it's really clear that we need to be very careful.
So if I look at primary school teachers, the offer
(05:14):
on the table is a sixty six percent of them
will we paid a base salary of at least one
hundred thousand dollars within twelve months of ratification. At the moment,
forty percent of them are, so it's a pretty significant increase.
If I look at the secondary school teachers that offer
latest offer is seventy six percent would be paid a
(05:35):
base salary of at least one hundred thousand dollars by
the twenty ninth of October this year. So that's up
from sixty percent currently. And these are these are increases
at a time when a lot of other people are
really doing it tough when it comes to jobs. And
you know, the latest offer is on top of the
(05:55):
fifty three million dollars that the government is spending now
on teachers pay registration levies. So that's everybody. That's five
hundred and fifty dollars per teacher. Wasn't even part of
the negotiations. The government just did that to help teach
us out.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What about the hair of course, yes, sorry, Karen.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And of course teachers continue to enjoy very generous and
or leave provisions which most people don't have. So I
actually think it's a reasonable situation.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
When we look at the health system, retention and recruitment
seems to be the overwhelming message I get from people
who work in it. On Friday I spoke to a
senior anesthetist who works and just in the public system
and one of our Auckland hospitals who said that if
we don't address this now, we're going to end up
with a substandard public service because we are nowhere near
(06:44):
what they are paying in Australia. Nobody wants to come
to New Zealand when they can come from the UK
and the US and head to Australia and work in
the conditions and get the pay and things they want.
Their people are leaving to go to the public sector,
which is going to be thriving. So and the public sector,
the private sector, private sector is going to be thriving,
and their standing there, well, this is someone who's working
(07:06):
on the front line, who's very experienced, who's standing there
going I don't know how much longer I can keep
doing this. You know, this is someone who hasn't run
off to the private sector or gone to Australia, and
so you know, there are serious concerns about the workload
and being understaffed, and we do not as New Zealanders
want to end up with a subject you know, to
see this house service decline any further. There is an
(07:28):
issue with retention and recruitment, and it might come down
to money.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well there isn't really if you look at nurses for instance,
So we've got an average salary now for both a
senior and registered nurse is one hundred and twenty five
six and sixty year dollars including overtime, professional development allowance
and penal rates. And under this offer, nurses on the
top step that have a two percent increase in June
(07:54):
which has already gone past, an extra two thirty five
dollars per year, with another one percent increase in June
next year. And under that a graduate nurse, someone who's
come out with no experience absolutely graduated seventy five, seven
hundred and seventy three thousand, and get a two percent
increase an extra but also their salary would be increased
(08:18):
to eighty three thousand, three hundred and seventeen. I mean
this is these are reasonable offers. And then also when
you say you know they're leaving, well no, we've actually
don't have enough places for graduate nurses to all of them,
so around eighty percent of them will expect to get
jobs in the public sector. So it's actually not true
(08:41):
because what we're seeing when you look at say New
South Wales, which is where we were losing a lot
of people too, at these levels, they're actually finding the
cost of living there is so much higher because of
housing costs, but also these pay rates are way up
there with the New South Wales ones. When you talk
about senior doctors, senior doctors like anesetus are also able
(09:03):
to get work in the private sector as well, in
many cases depending on their contracts. But look, we don't
have the great shortage that people expect because actually there
have been increases in those numbers. So I actually, you
know it's all right, well something involved in it safe.
But I'm also fully aware of other people in the
(09:25):
private sector and public sector who will tell me quite
the opposite. So look, they're still in the public sector.
Senior doctors are on average about three hundred and forty
thousand a year. That's not chicken feed.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Oh, and they'll say that a lot of them will
say it's not about the money, it's about ensuring the
future of the service. Minister, very much appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you so much. That was due to Collins.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudgin
from News Talks AB.
Speaker 2 (00:12):
Public Service Minister Judith Collins has fired a shot ahead
of the mega strike planned for Thursday. The strike will
see an estimated one hundred thousand public sector workers walk
off the job as they seek better pay and conditions,
and an open letter in the HERED on Sunday this morning,
Minister Collins has acknowledged the impact the strike has on
the community and take an aim at what she calls
politically motivated unions. Minister Collins joins me, now, good morning.
Speaker 3 (00:36):
Judith, I'll got more in Francesca, thank.
Speaker 2 (00:39):
You for your time. I believe you are out of
the country, so I appreciate it. This tell me why
have you released this letter.
Speaker 3 (00:46):
Well, I think it's important for everyone who's affected to
know the facts about what's going on. And what's very
clear to me is that the unions have not told
all of their members quite what is actually going on,
and we need to get the information out there.
Speaker 2 (01:02):
Okay, So is this aimed at the unions or those
who are striking, Well.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
This letter is actually aimed at everybody who's affected, and
particularly those patients who will not be able to get
their surgery for those parents in school students who are
not going to be able to operate as usual, and
given that we are coming up to very serious exams
(01:30):
for our students, are particularly those in the latter years
of their schooler, this is very important that people understand
what's really going on.
Speaker 2 (01:37):
Do you believe do you think that they're not being
informed well by whether it's the doctors, the nurses, the
teachers explaining to their community what's going on.
Speaker 3 (01:49):
Well, we've certainly are aware that not everybody has been told.
And we also know, for instance, that you cannot have
agreement if you can't get some dialogue rather than disruption.
And when we've seen that they teachers bargaining Collective Bargaining Union,
(02:10):
that they've been able to reach a settlement and that's
hundreds of primary school principles, they've been able to reach
a very good settlement by staying at the bargaining table.
And this seems to be very much focused on politics
rather than the actual outcomes.
Speaker 2 (02:25):
Do you think this letter will encourage that dialogue?
Speaker 3 (02:29):
And I hope so, I hope people understand that this
sort of mega strikers they're calling it that that is
actually just hurting the people who are, in many cases
the most vulnerable people, those needing operations, those needing to
be in hospital, those school students who have already missed out,
(02:50):
are an awful lot of their education. And when I
look at some of the offers on the they're actually
very good, particularly when you consider that the public sector,
in terms of a public sector wages have gone up
two point eight percent in the last year on average,
while the private sector's gone up two point three percent
(03:10):
of the last year. And it's the public sector that's striking,
not the private sector.
Speaker 2 (03:15):
Minister, and the letter you claim the number one item
on the agenda for the PPTA was Palestine. Can you
talk me through that.
Speaker 3 (03:22):
Yes, well, it's an email from the union to the
minister's office saying these are the issues that they wanted
to discuss and number one on that was Palestine. And frankly,
that's got nothing to do with the education of our students,
nothing to do with better outcomes for teachers in New Zealand.
(03:43):
It's all to do with politics. And I think it
shows exactly what's going through the heads of those making
those decisions.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
So do you think that that came from the unions.
Do you think that represents the teachers?
Speaker 3 (03:58):
Obviously no, because the email came from the union, not
from the teachers themselves. I don't think the teachers would
know that this was happening. They would be thinking that
the union should be there trying to get a fair
and reasonable settlement for them with the least amount of disruption,
and instead they've got this sort of behavior from a
(04:19):
union that should know better, and they're just playing politics.
I mean, what's the teacher's arrangement's got to do with Palestine?
Speaker 2 (04:30):
In the letter, it says there's no room to pay.
There's no room to move in pay negotiations. The government
has a limit. As we all know, there's only so
much money to go around. So are you basically saying
there is no more room to move when it comes
to money? And these within this dialogue.
Speaker 3 (04:51):
Were very clear is that these offers are actually in
many ways quite generous given what the private sector is
dealing with, and given that all the money comes from
to pay anything comes from tax pay dollars or borrowed money,
it's really clear that we need to be very careful.
So if I look at primary school teachers, the offer
(05:14):
on the table is a sixty six percent of them
will we paid a base salary of at least one
hundred thousand dollars within twelve months of ratification. At the moment,
forty percent of them are, so it's a pretty significant increase.
If I look at the secondary school teachers that offer
latest offer is seventy six percent would be paid a
(05:35):
base salary of at least one hundred thousand dollars by
the twenty ninth of October this year. So that's up
from sixty percent currently. And these are these are increases
at a time when a lot of other people are
really doing it tough when it comes to jobs. And
you know, the latest offer is on top of the
(05:55):
fifty three million dollars that the government is spending now
on teachers pay registration levies. So that's everybody. That's five
hundred and fifty dollars per teacher. Wasn't even part of
the negotiations. The government just did that to help teach
us out.
Speaker 2 (06:11):
What about the hair of course, yes, sorry, Karen.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
And of course teachers continue to enjoy very generous and
or leave provisions which most people don't have. So I
actually think it's a reasonable situation.
Speaker 2 (06:24):
When we look at the health system, retention and recruitment
seems to be the overwhelming message I get from people
who work in it. On Friday I spoke to a
senior anesthetist who works and just in the public system
and one of our Auckland hospitals who said that if
we don't address this now, we're going to end up
with a substandard public service because we are nowhere near
(06:44):
what they are paying in Australia. Nobody wants to come
to New Zealand when they can come from the UK
and the US and head to Australia and work in
the conditions and get the pay and things they want.
Their people are leaving to go to the public sector,
which is going to be thriving. So and the public sector,
the private sector, private sector is going to be thriving,
and their standing there, well, this is someone who's working
(07:06):
on the front line, who's very experienced, who's standing there
going I don't know how much longer I can keep
doing this. You know, this is someone who hasn't run
off to the private sector or gone to Australia, and
so you know, there are serious concerns about the workload
and being understaffed, and we do not as New Zealanders
want to end up with a subject you know, to
see this house service decline any further. There is an
(07:28):
issue with retention and recruitment, and it might come down
to money.
Speaker 3 (07:33):
Well there isn't really if you look at nurses for instance,
So we've got an average salary now for both a
senior and registered nurse is one hundred and twenty five
six and sixty year dollars including overtime, professional development allowance
and penal rates. And under this offer, nurses on the
top step that have a two percent increase in June
(07:54):
which has already gone past, an extra two thirty five
dollars per year, with another one percent increase in June
next year. And under that a graduate nurse, someone who's
come out with no experience absolutely graduated seventy five, seven
hundred and seventy three thousand, and get a two percent
increase an extra but also their salary would be increased
(08:18):
to eighty three thousand, three hundred and seventeen. I mean
this is these are reasonable offers. And then also when
you say you know they're leaving, well no, we've actually
don't have enough places for graduate nurses to all of them,
so around eighty percent of them will expect to get
jobs in the public sector. So it's actually not true
(08:41):
because what we're seeing when you look at say New
South Wales, which is where we were losing a lot
of people too, at these levels, they're actually finding the
cost of living there is so much higher because of
housing costs, but also these pay rates are way up
there with the New South Wales ones. When you talk
about senior doctors, senior doctors like anesetus are also able
(09:03):
to get work in the private sector as well, in
many cases depending on their contracts. But look, we don't
have the great shortage that people expect because actually there
have been increases in those numbers. So I actually, you
know it's all right, well something involved in it safe.
But I'm also fully aware of other people in the
(09:25):
private sector and public sector who will tell me quite
the opposite. So look, they're still in the public sector.
Senior doctors are on average about three hundred and forty
thousand a year. That's not chicken feed.
Speaker 2 (09:37):
Oh, and they'll say that a lot of them will
say it's not about the money, it's about ensuring the
future of the service. Minister, very much appreciate your time
this morning. Thank you so much. That was due to Collins.
Speaker 1 (09:48):
For more from the Sunday session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks there'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio
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