National Leader Christopher Luxon has announced plans to incentivise more New Zealanders to study nursing or midwifery by offering to pay off their student loans up to $4,500 a year for the first five years of their career in return for a bonding agreement committing them to work in New Zealand.

The plan aims to address the severe shortage of nurses and midwives in New Zealand, which has contributed to long waitlists, delayed treatment, and overcrowded emergency departments.

According to Luxon, New Zealand does not train enough nurses or midwives to address the workforce crisis, and those who are trained are being aggressively recruited to work overseas.

In the past five years, almost 19,000 nurses have left the public health system under Labour, he said.

The bonding agreement would also be open to registered nurses and midwives who have graduated within the last five years, on a pro-rata basis, to support the health sector in retaining early-career nurses and midwives in New Zealand.

In addition, National will make New Zealand more competitive in the global competition for skilled workers by allowing qualified overseas nurses and midwives to come to New Zealand on a six-month temporary visa without a job offer to look for work and to bring their immediate family members with them.

A relocation support scheme will also be established, offering up to 1,000 qualified overseas nurses and midwives relocation grants worth up to $10,000 each to support their move to New Zealand.

Luxon stressed that nurses and midwives are at the frontline of New Zealand’s collapsing health system and are bearing the brunt of the workforce shortage.

Working long shifts without enough staff is driving stress, anxiety, and burn-out, he said, and something needs to urgently change.

Labour has overseen a crisis in the health workforce, Luxon said, and National will deliver more nurses and midwives to support the hard-working frontline and ensure Kiwis can access the healthcare they deserve.