Nursing Code risks policing nurses’ opinions, not protecting patients

ACT Health spokesperson Todd Stephenson has written to the Nursing Council warning its Draft Code of Conduct 2026 risks chilling free expression and dragging ideological enforcement into professional regulation.

“The Nursing Council exists to protect patient safety and professional competence, not to police lawful opinions and free speech outside of the workplace,” says Stephenson.

“The draft Code uses vague terms like ‘offensive’, ‘inflammatory’, or ‘ill informed’ with no clear definition. When that language sits inside a disciplinary code, nurses are left guessing which lawful views, social media comments, and other uses of free expression might land them in trouble.”

"New Zealand has already seen the consequences of regulators straying into political policing. The Teaching Council’s pursuit of a teacher over lawful social media comments should have been a warning. That complaint never should have progressed, but the chilling effect on free expression was real.

"The problem is made worse by the draft Code’s expanded Treaty and equity obligations, which shift nursing regulation away from competence and safety, and toward enforcing particular worldviews. Combined with broad speech rules, the Treaty and equity provisions creates a real risk that nurses could face professional consequences for questioning politically correct orthodoxies, such as the use of mātauranga Māori in scientific or clinical settings.

"The approach is also out of step with Government direction. Cabinet has been clear that public services are to be delivered on the basis of need, not race. Regulators should be aligning with that direction, not embedding race-based or ideology-driven obligations through disciplinary codes.

“Nurses do not surrender their right to freedom of speech when they register. Codes of conduct must be clear, objective, and tightly connected to patient safety. This draft misses that mark.

"I have urged the Nursing Council to substantially revise the Code to restore clarity, narrow its scope, and refocus regulation on competence and safety. Consultation only has value if these problems are fixed."