4. Question No. 4—HealthSORAYA PEKE-MASON (Labour) to the Minister of HealthQuestion No. 4—Health4. SORAYA PEKE-MASON (Labour) to the Minister of Health: What has the Government done to support the health workforce?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister of Health): So many things. We have taken a range of actions to boost and support the health workforce. We are training more medical students increasing the number of nursing placements boosting the number of people working in the public health system and we are increasing their pay. We are focused on making our health workforce more sustainable growing our own workforce and building a workforce representative of our community.Soraya Peke-Mason: What has the Government done to improve the pay and conditions of nurses?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: We've done a lot to improve the conditions of nurses including growing their workforce. We've boosted our international recruitment and now provide up to $10000 in financial support for international nurses to cover their New Zealand registration costs. Proof of the impact of this work: in the quarter from 1 April to 30 June this year 3000 nurses got registration in New Zealand for the first time. Now that pay equity has been settled and their collective has been ratified graduate nurses now earn $73566 a year and registered nurses on the top step now earn $103630 a year. Increasing the pay of nurses goes a long way to retaining them in our system and as a result in the public health system we have seen over 5000 nursing full-time equivalents across our time in Government.Soraya Peke-Mason: How will the Government's workforce plan support the sector?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: Protecting promoting and improving the health of New Zealanders is only achievable with a strong health workforce. That's why we have released the Health Workforce Plan with six action areas and initiatives that will make an immediate difference to deliver the long-term shifts we need for the sustainability of our workforce. For example to grow the number of doctors working in general practice we will grow our rural generalist pathways scale the General Practice Education Programme—Simon Watts: Six years of neglect—six long years of neglect.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: —to 300 places a year by 2026—is someone over there opposed to training general practitioners? Speak up!—and establish a national picture of health training pathways. It will take time for the actions we're talking to to be fully realised but we are laying the pathway of a much better health system.Soraya Peke-Mason: Great work e te Minita. Supplementary—SPEAKER: Order! You just wasted that question. You got another one?Soraya Peke-Mason: Why has the Government focused on supporting the health workforce?Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: We are working on long-term plans to ensure a representative and responsive workforce to meet the future needs of New Zealanders no matter where they are who they are or where they live. Global workforce shortages and long-term underinvestment has put a lot of pressure on our workforce and these challenges are not unique to New Zealand. Over the next year stabilising our domestic workforce and supporting them to manage the day-to-day pressures will be a key focus. Workforce has been a demonstrated priority for this Government and we have a long-term plan to assure a sustainable representative and responsive workforce to meet our future needs.