AM Edition: Top 10 Business Articles on LiveNews.co.nz for July 1, 2026 – Full Text

Health New Zealand has been forced to withdraw a dangerous restructure of frontline health roles across the Midland / Te Manawa Taki district after the PSA and other unions exposed fundamental flaws in the proposal.

Health NZ has acknowledged concerns raised regarding the quality of the restructuring documentation and agreed to withdraw the proposed consultation document.

“Health workers who were proposed to lose their jobs will be receiving letters saying that their roles are no longer proposed to be disestablished and that the proposal will not be going ahead.

“This is a win for critical health workers and for patients who would have been impacted, but it should never have come to this,” said Fleur Fitzsimons, National Secretary for the Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi.

“Health NZ put out a restructure proposal impacting nearly 100 roles that was so riddled with gaps and errors that it was impossible for workers to assess what was actually being proposed and how they were impacted. Some workers were not even told their roles were affected. Some roles proposed to go were not in fact being axed.

“This is the direct result of the Government continuing to force Health NZ into rushed restructuring to meet arbitrary cost-cutting targets. This latest botched change follows 2,800 jobs already axed across the public health system.

“You can’t design a sound proposal when you are under pressure to slash costs and the people with the institutional knowledge to do it properly have already been shown the door in earlier rounds of cuts.

“We understand that Health NZ will still seek to make some structural change, we have committed to engage constructively in this process.

“All this could have been avoided if the Government properly funded health in the first place instead of choosing to cut taxes for landlords and big tobacco.”

– The restructure aimed to centralise clinical leadership and administration functions across 11 hospitals in Taranaki, Waikato, Bay of Plenty, and Tairāwhiti.

– 96 roles were proposed to be cut with thirty vacant roles also axed.

– In their place, 108 new roles would have been created, resulting in a net loss of 17 roles.

– Staff would have to re-apply for the new roles with no guarantee of success and risk being placed in new roles at lower pay.

10 June 2026 Frontline job losses proposed from hospitals in Taranaki, Waikato, Bay of Plenty and Tairāwhiti

The Public Service Association Te Pūkenga Here Tikanga Mahi is Aotearoa New Zealand’s largest trade union, representing and supporting more than 95,000 workers across central government, state-owned enterprises, local councils, health boards and community groups.