Health

Our Values

New Zealand’s health system should deliver timely, high-quality care to based on individual need, regardless of background. We support a competitive, innovative health sector where public and private providers work together to deliver the best results for patients. Our focus is on cutting waste, improving accountability, and ensuring every taxpayer dollar is spent where it makes the most difference.

Our Achievements

ACT has driven many of the Government’s actions to deliver fair and effective healthcare. These include:

• Abolishing the Māori Health Authority: ACT ended the race-based division of the health system, ensuring all New Zealanders are served through a single, accountable organisation.

• Removing race-based provisions from the Pae Ora Act: ACT is stripping out requirements that prioritised Māori health outcomes over need, replacing them with clear objectives to deliver effective, timely services for all patients.

• Introducing measurable targets for Health NZ: ACT secured requirements for the Government Policy Statement on Health to include specific, trackable targets so taxpayers can see results.

• Partnering with the private sector: ACT supported the Health Minister’s directive for Health NZ to offer private hospitals long-term contracts for elective surgeries, increasing capacity and reducing wait times.

• Challenging wasteful bureaucracy: ACT has consistently called for health funding to be focused on frontline services rather than management layers, freeing up resources for more doctors, nurses, and patient care.

Our Next Goals

The coalition Government has not gone as far as ACT would like, but it’s gone further than it would have without ACT. We always have more ideas ready, and here are some we continue to advocate.

Expand public–private partnerships in health

ACT wants the Government to be primarily a purchaser, not a provider, of health services. This means expanding contracts with private providers for diagnostics, specialist care, and elective procedures so patients are treated faster.

Remove remaining race-based health policies

ACT will continue reviewing legislation and regulations to ensure health services are delivered on the basis of patient need and value for money, without preference or disadvantage based on ethnicity.

Increase transparency and performance measurement

ACT supports publishing regular, detailed performance reports for hospitals and health services, enabling patients and taxpayers to see exactly how the system is performing and where improvements are needed.