Simeon Brown threatens doctors as mega strike looms

It’s not new news that Simeon Brown is now threatening senior doctors – he wants to force them to accept a pay offer, and also restrict their ability to protest. Judith Collins and Erica Stanford signaled a similar move in August for teachers.

No surprise there.

It’s part of this government’s modus operandi, and we can expect more of it in due course – especially if they are re-elected.

Simeon is also a particularly authoritarian Minister- already in the process of passing laws to silence doctors from speaking out on public health matters

He has been misleadingly messaging for weeks, if not months, that “unions” (i.e. the workers that vote on motions) had not been “bargaining” appropriately and were “walking away from negotiations”.

His gaslighting escalated progressively from deception about doctors’ wages*, to blaming medical professionals for a strike they do not want, to now claiming that our medical professionals are unethical because they refuse to accept the pay cuts, and want safe staffing and respect.

Brown has also consistently accused doctors of “walking away from negotiations”.

The facts are clear though:

• 90% of allied senior doctors under this offer would receive about 1.16% per year – and on the whole, it would represent an effective pay cut for all senior doctors
• Senior doctors had offered to meet with Health NZ twice over the last two months, but have been firmly rejected by Health NZ’s negotiation team
• Despite this, Simeon Brown persists in claiming doctors are the ones refusing to negotiate
• Doctors have also faced frontline freezes and critical under-resourcing for over 16 months under National – some are asked to make beds & clean sinks while National slashes years of technology and infrastructure investments which will push back health improvements by years
• National is also aggressively defunding public health & moving millions to private investors – undercutting an already critical health system. Data this month confirms that as doctors warned, the private sector is cherrypicking the easiest cases from public health, while taking a significant chunk of taxpayers money – and competing with its staff
• Doctor vacancies in some regions are now at critical levels and in some cases, contributing to patient deaths which doctors are struggling to prevent – reference: Gisborne, Taupo, Christchurch and Nelson

Doctors are striking for the future viability of our public health system and to retain and attract the right medical professionals – and keep them.

If we have one lesson to take from the UK, it’s that breaking down public health in favour of privatisation is a potentially irreversible crisis.

Patient advocate Malcolm Mulholland is right –

“I think the reason why our doctors and our nurses are striking is because there’s just simply not enough staff. I don’t know how many times they have to tell him until they are blue in the face.”

“You know, all this talk about crossing an ethical line, I would say take a look in the mirror, minister.”

And Ayesha Verrall too:

“Simeon Brown needs to grow up.He needs to stop taking these public positions that are designed to provoke and make it harder to reach a settlement.

Over 110,000 of our most essential and valued workers strike this week, including New Zealand’s senior doctors, nurses, midwives, teachers, social workers, mental health staff etc.

Support them, join them, honk for them, smile for them – lives may very well depend on it.

Where it is happening in your town – 23 October, 2025

PS*

It may be interesting to note that 2 years ago, an article outlined:

“For doctors covered by the ASMS, their base salary scale begins at $170,000, and peaks at $250,560, after 15 salary steps. Senior doctors would only earn $238,500 after 14 years.”

And yet Simeon Brown persists in telling everyone doctors earn over $340,000 as a way to mislead the public.

Simeon Brown’s base salary for himself has risen to $304,300 this year and will see a further jump to $327,100 in 2026. He also accepted a backdated pay rise, with his pay up 10.5% from the election to next year.

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Reposted from Mountain Tūī