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#WhyIVote – Health Policies

We recognise that easily accessible health care contributes to the well-being and economic stability of all women, as well as their families/whanau. However, gender inequality continues to put women at risk by limiting their access to health information and services which can impact overall health outcomes. This includes but is not limited to chronic health conditions, mental health, and reproductive and sexual health.

We advocate for access to affordable and inclusive women’s healthcare regardless of nationality, age, race or ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, gender expression, socioeconomic status, or disability.

Three attention points on Health in the 2017 election:

Mental Health and Suicide
“According to the World Health Organization, mental illness accounts for 15% of the total burden of disease in the developed world, with depression set to become the second leading cause of disability in the world by 2020.” – For more info please visit Health NZ

“A UNICEF report said New Zealand had the worst [youth suicide] rate in the world at 15.6 per 100,000 people in the designated age bracket (15-19).” – For more, please visit RadioNZ

The Public Healthcare System
“Meanwhile, mental health workers and union representatives said the funding was only a fraction of what was needed to adequately respond to demand.” – For more, please visit Stuff

Alcohol and Drug Laws
“To look at it statistically, the New Zealand Drug Foundation says alcohol causes more harm in this country than illegal drugs methamphetamine, marijuana, cocaine, ecstasy, acid and heroin combined… Addiction to it is still a massive problem in our society, affecting not only the homeless and those in poverty but Kiwis at the other end of the wealth spectrum and everywhere in between.” – For more, please visit NewsHub

Women’s March Aotearoa New Zealand needs your help to inspire more women to vote in the September 2017 general election with our #WhyIVote action.

The women of Aotearoa New Zealand have had the right to vote for almost 125 years, but during the 2014 general election only two thirds of those aged 18 to 29 voted.

We want to change that. Women deserve and need to make their voices heard.

Please help us inspire women to vote by telling us why #KateSentMe and #whyIvote.

Political Party Policies

Here’s where the different political parties (in alphabetical order) stand on issues related to health.

For more information, see The SpinOff Policy site and On The Fence website.

ACT
• Increase support for people with physical or mental conditions
• Reduce tobacco tax
• Require parents of immigrants who join their children in NZ to pay for their own healthcare and superannuation
• Legalise euthanasia.

Green
• Improve pay for mental health workers
• Conduct a mental health inquiry
• Re-establish the Mental Health Commission
• Give all newborn babies a wahakura safe sleeping device
• Make it safer for children to walk and cycle to school
• Fund home insulation
• Introduce a warrant of fitness scheme for rental homes
• Tax sugary drinks
• Increase health funding
• Extend free doctor visits to people under the age of 18
• Provide all decile 1 to 4 schools with a nurse
• Legalise medical cannabis
• Work toward legalising cannabis for personal use
• Set a minimum price for alcohol.

Labour
• Fund extra mental health workers for primary and intermediate schools in earthquake affected areas
• Pilot mental health teams in high demand areas
• Provide all schools with a comprehensive health service
• Re-establish the Mental Health Commission
• Increase funding for suicide prevention service run by rainbow community organisations
• Introduce enforceable quality standards for rental housing
• Aim to end HIV in New Zealand by 2025
• Implement a plan to reduce childhood obesity
• Improve access to healthcare for Rainbow New Zealanders
• Increase health funding by $8 billion over four years
• Provide all schools with a comprehensive health service
• Establish a National Cancer Agency.

Maori Party
• Fund kaupapa Māori based suicide prevention, support and education programmes
• Set up mental health youth workers in secondary schools
• Make it easier to access mental health services
• Fund community based kaupapa Māori treatment programmes and residential facilities for meth addiction
• Increase the number of respite care beds for meth addicts.

National
• Continue to adopt a social investment approach to mental health
• Continue to pilot a social bonds programme to help people with a mental illness into work
• Continue a programme to improve the quality and consistency of mental health services
• Continue to pilot mental health initiatives for prisoners and offenders
• Continue to implement a plan to reduce childhood obesity
• Work towards NZ being smoke-free by 2025
• Expand the programme to reduce Sudden Unexpected Death in Infancy
• Allow DHBs to fluoridate drinking water
• Increase health funding by $3.9 billion over four years
• Continue to implement the National Bowel Screening Programme
• Increase funding for disability support services
• Fund all ambulances to have two crew members
• Continue to pilot a special court for offenders with alcohol and drug problems.

NZ First
• Conduct a mental health inquiry
• Increase funding for mental health services
• Review the accessibility of safe spaces in communities for exercise and play
• Review the accessibility of affordable healthy foods
• Increase health funding
• Provide superannuitants with three free doctors visits and one free eye check yearly
• Hold an inquiry into the health system
• Oppose cannabis decriminalisation
• Make it an offence to be intoxicated in public
• Oppose bans on alcohol advertising and sponsorship
• Raise the drinking age to 20.

TOP
• Pay $200 per week to everyone aged 18 to 23
• Raise the drinking age to 20
• Increase tax on alcohol
• Improve coordination between the health and education systems for people with special needs
• Legalise the sale and use of cannabis.

United Future
• Increase funding for mental health services
• Increase the number of community-based mental health workers
• Fund research into mental health
• Improve coordination between District Health Boards and community agencies for mental health services
• Create a regulated market for drugs that are proved safe
• Improve rainbow communities’ access to the health system
• Increase support for drug treatment and rehabilitation
• Allow courts to sentence people to rehabilitation for low-level drug possession.