Ayesha Verrall

The Labour party is describing the latest round of job cuts as reckless.

Part of the proposal was to look at closing the Suicide Prevention Office and merging two of the main roles into a wider team.

An RNZ investigation has revealed the Associate Health Minister Casey Costello rejected official's urges to retain parts of the smokefree laws she is planning to repeal.

The current law was set to… Audio

Labour's public service spokesperson says New Zealanders could lose frontline services as the finance minister looks for public sector funding cuts.

Treasury confirmed last week that department… Audio

The government is being told to come clean about its smoking policies.

The associate Minister of Health says she is committed to looking at a range of options to help smokers to quit but Ministry of… Audio

Labour's health spokesperson Ayesha Verrall says the new government is misleading the public to justify repealing smokefree laws and she wants them to "debate" the issue.

On Sunday, Prime Minister… Audio

Labour is demanding answers over a move by the new coalition government to defer decisions on proposed changes to international health regulations as part of its coalition deal with New Zealand First.

National is vowing to cut waiting times for key medical services, including cancer treatment. Its health policy also sets five key targets including shorter emergency department visits; faster cancer… Audio

The election looms over Parliament’s debating chamber and as it nears the behaviour of MPs is amplified, especially in Question Time. We have a week of photos from above and from down amongst it.

There were times during the peak of our Covid response where I longed for this particular day." The wistful words of the PM as he announced; Covid confinement is canned from one minute past midnight… Video, Audio

Emergency Departments across the country are hitting peak demand, without the resources to cope.. Christchurch ED had a record 412 people through its doors over a 24 hour period last week. An ED Nurse… Video, Audio

A Government strategy to reinforce and boost the health workforce has come without a timeline, or an immediate action plan.

Te Whata Ora says right now we are short close to 5000 nurses, 1700 doctors… Audio

The Therapeutic Products Bill is one of those pieces of legislation that requires a fair bit of panel-beating in a select committee, and even then not everyone's happy with its shape.  Audio

Parliament has hit the time of year it turns into a combination of Glastonbury and the Inquisition - the multi-pronged miniterial grilling called Estimates Hearings. Audio

New vape stores will be banned from setting-up within 300 metres of schools or marae under a government crackdown to stop young people getting hooked.

From August it will start phasing out cheaper… Video, Audio

National's accused the government of botching its measles catch up campaign - which saw tens of millions of dollars spent - but reached just seven percent of its target.

The office of the Auditor… Video, Audio

Health Minister Ayesha speaks with Kathryn Ryan about the state of the health system. Last week the Minister's office released a plan outlining how New Zealand's GPs and hospitals will cope with what… Audio

The government has ruled out following Australia's crackdown on vaping - at least this term. The Australian federal government has announced tough new measures in an effort to stop young people taking… Audio

We've been talking this morning about National's proposal to attract more nurses and midwives into the profession. The party plans to offer financial incentives ... as long as participants agree to a… Audio