Pitched as a way to "turn around the crisis in health" for patients and health workers, the Green Party's health package would build up public health funding with a new $3 billion increase at each of the next four Budgets.

📋 Greens: Health investment in the fiscal plan, October 2026 →

What it does

• Adds a fresh $3 billion to public health funding at each of the next four Budgets, which the party and RNZ put at $30 billion over the four years.
• Targets hospitals and emergency departments, aiming to restore patient flow, speed up discharge and add urgent and inpatient capacity.
• Puts more into primary, preventive and community care, including dental, mental health and hauora Māori services.
• Funds a long-term workforce plan to train, recruit and keep doctors, nurses, allied health and support staff, with a pathway to safe staffing.
• Is paid for inside the larger operating allowances in the Greens' fiscal plan, which the party says is why its return to surplus comes a year later, in 2029/30.

The debate

• Co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick argued that a government declaring a surplus while children wait for cancer treatment and emergency departments struggle is failing, and said the party had heard nurses' calls for safe staffing.
• Critics focused on how it would be paid for. National's campaign chair Simeon Brown said the Greens' fiscal plan had "nine new taxes on the table", and ACT leader David Seymour said taxpayers already pay $1.2 million an hour in interest on government debt.