Tēnā koe Minister Peters, 

NZ First committed to "ensure Whānau Āwhina Plunket is funded to do their job properly” in its 2023 Coalition Agreement with the National Party. As party leader, you also personally campaigned on this ahead of the 2023 election.  Budget 2026 has shown you have broken your promise. We are writing to ask you, as leader of NZ First, to honour it this Parliamentary term, as you committed to do. 

We are nurses and health workers employed by Whānau Āwhina Plunket. We work on the frontlines supporting whānau at one of the most critical moments – when they bring a newborn baby home. We turn up every day for babies and our communities and we love our work. But we need your help to fix the underfunding is driving Whānau Āwhina Plunket nurses, health promoters, community Karitane and Kaiāwhina to look for other more secure and better paid roles in other parts of the health sector.  

Whānau Āwhina Plunket nurses are paid considerably less than hospital-based colleagues doing comparable work, and last year our pay equity claim was scrapped weeks before it was due to be submitted. Nurses are leaving Whānau Āwhina Plunket for better-paid hospital roles as a result and every nurse who leaves the service means fewer visits, less continuity, and less expert care for pēpē and their families. 

We have been part of Aotearoa for 120 years. New Zealand families should not have to wonder whether Whānau Āwhina Plunket will be there for them, or whether the nurse who sees their baby will still be there next year. We ask you, Mr Peters, to hold National to the commitment you both signed, and to ensure Whānau Āwhina Plunket is properly funded to keep sending Nurses, Karitane and Kaiāwhina to the families who rely on them. 

Ngā mihi,