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- By Simeon Brown, Member of Parliament for Pakuranga
The Government recently delivered Budget 2025, which sets our priorities for the year ahead as we focus on growing the economy.
A strong economy lets us create jobs, deal with the cost of living, build new infrastructure, and provide better public services, like more police and safer streets, a world-class education for our children, and quality, timely healthcare.
As Minister of Health, my focus has been squarely on ensuring all Kiwis across the country have access to the healthcare they need, when and where they need it.
Budget 2025 delivers a big boost for health, with record investment to provide New Zealanders with better health services and ensuring hospitals and healthcare facilities are fit for the future.
This year’s Budget provides a $7 billion increase in Vote Health operating funding over the forecast period, which includes the $1.37b per annum increase to Health NZ’s baseline, bringing total health spending in 2025/26 to $32.7b.
This builds on last year’s Budget of a record investment in health over three budgets that is already delivering results, with more elective surgeries, GP appointments, and other critical healthcare services New Zealanders rely on.
Budget 2025 also invests over $1b in new capital to deliver modern, fit-for-purpose infrastructure that meets the health needs of New Zealand’s growing and ageing population.
This includes a major redevelopment of Nelson Hospital, a new emergency department at Wellington Regional Hospital, and fixing critical Auckland hospital infrastructure, such as electrical, heating, and hot water at Auckland City Hospital and Greenlane Critical Centre.
This Budget also invests $164 million into urgent and after-hours care, with communities across New Zealand set to benefit from easier access to such care, closer to home.
This includes a new 24-hour service identified for our own Counties Manukau area, something Pakuranga desperately needs with locals having to travel as far as Middlemore Hospital to receive after-hours care.
We’re also investing $91m to increase prescription lengths, with patients able to receive 12-month prescriptions for their medicines from 2026, if it’s clinically appropriate and safe to do so.
Other Budget initiatives include expanding the primary care workforce with more locally-trained doctors and nurses, a 24/7 digital service for online medical consultations, and support for a new multi-agency response to mental health distress calls.
We simply couldn’t make these record investments into our health sector without a strong, growing economy.
Budget 2025 delivers on this Government’s promise to put patients first, ensuring all Kiwis can receive quality, timely care, no matter where they live.
