An historic pay equity settlement has been reached by Te Whatu Ora-employed healthcare workers, including nurses and midwives.

“This is a long overdue step towards addressing the significant gender-based inequality nurses, midwives, health care assistants and kaimahi hauora face in their work every day,” said the chief executive of the nurses organisation, Paul Goulter. “But it is also just a beginning, and we look forward to working with Te Whatu Ora to address other forms of gender-based discriminations nurses face.”

The need for pay parity across “all nursing sectors” was well-established, said Goulter, and all nurses should be paid the same according to their qualifications and experience.

“It will mean nurses can work where they believe they can best contribute, rather than where they can earn enough to pay the bills. It will also help end the discriminatory wages and conditions faced by Māori and iwi, Pasifika, rural and other disadvantaged health service providers.”

According to RNZ, the pay settlement will mean some workers get as much as $28,000 in lump sums and back pay.

This update was amended on Tuesday morning to reflect that strike action may still go ahead.

The Green Party has criticised a new transport plan unveiled today by National, calling it the “exact opposition” of what New Zealand needs.

The $24 billion transport plan includes construction of 13 new “roads of national significance”, a replacement for the “Let’s Get Wellington Moving” plan in the capital and a handful of other new or revived roading projects across the country.

But Julie Anne Genter, transport spokesperson for the Greens, said it was “completely nonsensical”, “visionless” and a “rehash of failed ideas”.

“You cannot build your way out of traffic congestion by making more roads. The more you build, the more people drive,” said Genter. “National promises to do more of what we’ve always done, so we will get what we have always got. Congestion, longer journey times, and more pollution.”

Genter said you cannot trust National with the climate and said the policy could set back the country’s climate progress by decades. “The Green Party knows that climate pollution must come down, and it must be fast. Our communities have already experienced the devastating impacts of climate change. Today National are telling Aotearoa they don’t care if it gets worse.”

And as to public transport, she added: “The claims of improvements to public transport will just be a drop in the rising ocean, especially considering the impact of more roads and scrapping Let’s Get Wellington Moving.”

National Party leader Christopher Luxon said his party’s plan would mean New Zealanders could “get where they want to go faster and spend less time in their cars and more time doing what they love”.

National has released further details of its $24 billion transport plan, which will include building 13 new “roads of national significance”.

“The plan will be funded through reallocated money from the National Land Transport Fund, additional government investment and other innovative funding tools like value capture – where developers who benefit from new infrastructure contribute to the cost, and equity finance opportunities for local and global investors,” said party leader Christopher Luxon in a statement.

As reported yesterday, the new roads will include four four-lane highways linking Whangārei to Tauranga at a stated cost of $6bn, of which only the Whangārei to Port Marsden section would be started in the first term. Transport minister David Parker told One News the predicted costs were “woefully light” and would “many hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars more”.

In addition to the highways, as reported in today’s Bulletin, National would ditch Let’s Get Wellington Moving and is instead promising a second Mt Victoria tunnel in Wellington. Other new or revived road projects include Southern Links in Hamilton, Petone to Grenada and the Cross Valley Link in Wellington and the Hutt Valley, and the North West Alternative State Highway in Auckland.

The party is also promising to rebuild flood and cyclone-damaged regions like Northland, the East Coast and Hawke’s Bay, and upgrade transport infrastructure in Ashburton, Queenstown, Otago and Southland. 

Public transport isn’t entirely neglected, with a new northwestern rapid transit corridor, an airport to Botany busway and the completion of the full eastern busway for Auckland.

Luxon said the plan would unlock housing growth, boost productivity and lift incomes. “New Zealanders will be able to get where they want to go faster and spend less time in their cars and more time doing what they love. Freight will also move more efficiently around the country, improving productivity.”

The Labour Party has today released its list rankings for October’s election, bringing existing cabinet ministers into the top 20 and shuffling others well down.

Announced by prime minister Chris Hipkins and party president Jill Day in Wellington today, the list sees big moves for Willow-Jean Prime who shifts from 36th position up to nine, reflecting her ascension into cabinet. Adrian Rurawhe, the current speaker, moves from 24 to 11 and Jo Luxton shifts up into slot 19 from 39.

Today’s announcement follows the sudden departure last week of cabinet minister Kiri Allan, who announced she’d be quitting politics for the foreseeable future following a car crash and arrest.

Michael Wood, who was sacked from cabinet over his shareholdings last month, drops dramatically from 23rd in 2020 down to 45. And it appears the biggest loser is Phil Twyford who slumps from number four down to 49. Both Wood and Twyford will likely need to win their electorates to see a return to parliament from October.

“We have ranked our existing cabinet, whips and office holders broadly in their caucus order,” said Day. “We have then boosted the wider team with new talent from a range of different backgrounds including small business owners, lawyers, a senior diplomat, local government leaders and leaders in Te Ao Māori.”

The highest-ranked newcomer is Georgie Dansey at 31. Dansey, the runner-up in last year’s Hamilton West byelection, is running in the Hamilton East seat in October. Dansey has earned a higher list placing than many sitting MPs, as has another newcomer, Toni Boynton, who is taking on Rawiri Waititi in Waiariki. She’s at number 39.

We’ll have a full run down of the new list later today on The Spinoff.

Perhaps my highlight of the 2020 election season, The Spinoff’s webseries Youth Wings returns for another round this year.

Culminating in a live debate from the Auckland Town Hall, the series follows youth representatives from all the main political parties as they assist with campaigning ahead of October’s election.

While we don’t quite have a launch date for the new batch of episodes, here is a first sneak peek of season two.

Despite promising to abandon Let’s Get Wellington Moving, National still has big plans for Wellington transport – namely, roads. It is committing to building a second road tunnel under Mt Victoria, and will revive the mothballed Petone to Grenada highway project, which is located in Bishop’s electorate. National says it “will open up land for more than 5000 homes, and a cross valley link to ease congestion across the harbourside suburb and Lower Hutt”, writes Andrea Vance.

The new Mt Vic tunnel will be built beside the existing one, carrying two lanes travelling east; the original, tunnel would carry two lanes of traffic towards the city. “A pedestrian and cycleway will be built above the road, separated from traffic in the new underpass.”

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MP Tāmati Coffey, who had previously announced his retirement from politics, will replace Kiri Allan as the Labour candidate on the East Coast.

Allan announced last week she wouldn’t be contesting the electorate at this October’s election, instead opting to quit politics after a car crash and subsequent arrest in Wellington one week ago.

Coffey told RNZ that he was tapped on the shoulder when the vacancy for the seat opened. “I had to ask myself whether I had more gas in the tank. I actually do have more gas in the tank for this one,” he said. “I thought about it, I talked to good people around me, most importantly I talked to my whānau.”

After announcing his retirement in March, he’s been “really enjoying the work” in the months since, said Coffey. “I know that Kiritapu spent the last six years doing some really good work in the community. I want to build on that work. The East Coast needs someone who has a stable pair of hands.”

The East Coast had also lost Labour minister Meka Whaitiri, though she remains an independent and will contest the Ikaroa-Rāwhiti seat for Te Pāti Māori at the election. Coffey said the region had therefore lost representation from two senior Labour MPs: “I’m here to finish what they started”.