Stanford EricaERICA STANFORD (National—East Coast Bays): Thank you Madam Speaker. Well this today is a call that I'd rather not have to be taking. This shouldn't be happening in New Zealand today. A woman with severe headaches told she would have to wait eight hours at Middlemore Hospital's emergency department (ED) left because of that wait time in extreme pain and tragically passed away from a brain bleed.What we do know is that on that day Middlemore was short-staffed. They were three nurses down and—importantly—one emergency department nurse. What is important to note though is it wasn't only on this day and it wasn't only at this hospital. This was happening around New Zealand and we know that because around the same time—in fact I think in the same month—Wellington Regional Hospital issued a provisional improvement notice because they were so dangerously short-staffed and had closed down three wards.This is happening across New Zealand and continues to happen. A report stated that is was only the hard work and the dedication of their staff at Middlemore that was keeping it from experiencing more severe incidents. What we do know is that these exceptional health professionals—these heroic nurses—are doing everything they can. They're working long hours they're working double shifts but they are burnt out. They're stressed out they're overworked they're up against it and we know that they're leaving. They don't want to but they have to and we are not attracting enough nurses in New Zealand to cover the ones that are leaving.They're leaving because they're stressed out and they left this year last year and the year before because of the appalling way they were treated by this Government despite what those members have said today. Let's not forget the split migrant family nurses who left because they were split from their families and it wasn't until we kicked up a stink that they actually only in May last year allowed them to be reunited with their families.The 2021 Resident Visa programme last year missed out a bunch of nurses because they were on the wrong visa type or because they were students. They left. Nurses with offshore partners were sent back to their home countries to sit there for three months—and this was happening in June this year—being sent back overseas to ridiculously spend three months with their partner before they could come back into New Zealand with that partner. That's how his Government treated nurses and that's why they left and now we have the Green List debacle where we are not able to compete with Australia.So when we know that Middlemore was three nurses short-staffed and one ED nurse short-staffed that night we should look into the dismal treatment of nurses by this Government who made them choose to leave and have chosen to leave over the last three years. Until we have better immigration settings this will continue to happen. The Nurses Organisation says that it is the number one concern of their members about staff shortages.We should be doing everything we possibly can to get more nurses fast-tracked into this country. No one agrees with a two-year work to residence for nurses—not Health New Zealand not the Aged Care Association not the Nurses Organisation and not the care in the community sector. The only people that believe in this policy is the Government. No one backs them.On the back of this damning report what we would have expected today is immigration policy settings to immediately change to get more nurses in—that's what we expected. But what did we hear today? What did we hear?Dr Shane Reti: Excuses.ERICA STANFORD: We heard excuses—that's right Dr Shane Reti. We heard COVID." "Oh it's a really bad flu situation." "It takes time for change to bed in." and—the most egregious excuse we heard today from Minister Little—"Well the likelihood is she may have died anyway." That's what we heard today from this Minister when we should have been hearing "What I am going to do today" from this health Minister and the immigration Minister "is get more nurses into New Zealand by fast-tracking them by being competitive with Australia." We do not need more excuses; we need solutions. That's what the public of New Zealand expects.What we want to see to avoid this happening again is nurses on the Green List. Now despite what they say about the hundreds of nurses coming in only 97 have applied in three months. That's worse than when the borders were closed.The Competency Assessment Programme course nurses—they still can't bring their families when they come in. Let them do that. Why are we so hung up with a nurse having to have a job offer for goodness' sake? Let us compete with Australia. Let us have the same settings for nurses so that they choose to come here or are Labour too arrogant to admit that they got these immigration settings wrong? In the face of this tragic death will they finally listen will they set aside their pride and will they make us a more attractive destination for nurses? Will they stop the excuses and finally give us workable solutions?"