Nurses elect new President

The country’s largest nursing organisation, the New Zealand Nurses Organisation (NZNO), has a new President, Wellington Staff Nurse Grant Brookes. Brookes won a six-way contest to co-lead the 46,000-member professional and industrial body.

Brookes will work with joint NZNO leader, Kaiwhakahaere Kerri Nuku, and with newly-elected Vice President Rosemary Minto in the organisation’s bicultural co-leadership model.

A mental health nurse, Brookes has many years’ experience within NZNO structures and the wider health sector, in both governance and operational roles. He has formerly been a member of the NZNO Board of Directors, while in NZNO’s professional arm he has served on the national committee of the Mental Health Nurses Section.

As a workplace delegate, Brookes has long advocated for fellow members and looks forward to building NZNO’s dual identity as a professional association and registered union.

“I am also excited about working within a bicultural model,” says Brookes, “I see the ambitions of health workers, our desire for a healthy New Zealand and our understanding of the social determinants of health relating closely to our obligations under Te Tiriti o Waitangi.”

“Along with many others in New Zealand, nurses are working in a difficult and constrained environment. The impact of years of underfunding is now being felt in the health sector.”

Brookes also acknowledges the work of outgoing president, Marion Guy, “I wish Marion all the very best in her next venture. Marion is held in high esteem within NZNO and the wider health sector. I know she will continue to make a valuable contribution, wherever she directs her energies in the future.”

Brookes believes the election result reflects a mood for change within NZNO’s membership.
“I see my role as being the facilitator of the change which members are telling me they want. I am looking forward to speaking for the first time as President at the NZNO AGM and Conference in September.”

ENDS.

© Scoop Media