Frontline Kiwi workers are struggling to pay for food and rent, while politicians are giving away billions to the very rich. Public services are being cut back, privatised, and sold off. This is not how you build a stronger, healthier, or safer society. It’s time to stop the vandalism and rebuild NZ. Join Dr Gary Payinda and guests on The Frontline.
Gary Payinda is a passionate advocate for social justice and equity. With a background in public health and community organizing, Gary brings a unique perspective to the Frontline team. He is dedicated to amplifying the voices of marginalized communities and holding those in power accountable.
"Roadside drug testing could be a great idea if it was accurate and effective. But is it?"
Half of NZ can't afford to see a dentist. Max Harris and Dental for All want to change that.
The Mysterious Case of Health's Disappearing Half-Billion.
Accurate and effective, or a policy that will fill the jails while simultaneously not making the streets any safer? What does the international evidence show? We chat with Nikolai Siimes of the University of Auckland, a researcher who has published on roadside illicit drug testing.
A conversation with Max Harris, lawyer, campaigner, and author, talking about Dental for All, a group that's got a national roadshow under way talking about the crazy idea that dental care should be a public service available to every New Zealander. Even the ones who are not 'wealthy and sorted'. If you want to imagine where the current government's push to healthcare privatisation will lead us, look no further than adult dental care in NZ: with almost half of people locked out due to cost. Together, let's say No, fight back, and build a better nation. Please share this video with a friend. For more, also check out my Substack @drgarypayinda.
Craig Renney (Chief Economist of the CTU and host of The Locked-In Podcast) is our guest this week on The Frontline, telling us about the $500 million dollars in the Health budget that didn't get spent, despite overwhelming need. This half-billion of taxpayers' dollars evaporated at the same time the government was telling nurses they must accept real pay cuts, because there was just 'no money' left.
Māori health ‘privilege’ starts in childhood with a 30X higher risk of rheumatic fever, continues in adulthood with later diagnosis, fewer treatments, and worse outcomes, and ends with an overall death gap that is a remarkable 7 years earlier than Pākehā. In this episode we talk with Health Policy Specialist Gabrielle Baker about whether current health policies will fix this, or make this woeful situation even worse. LINK to ASMS https://asms.org.nz/wp-content/uploads/2025/10/Maori-Health-Final.pdf
The Frontline spoke with a maths education researcher about international test scores, smartphones in classes, bullying and behavioural problems in students, streaming in classrooms, teacher defunding, charter schools, and the stripping of professional education funding from teacher's aides. Plus the introduction and rollout of the 3rd curriculum for schools in the past 3 years. There's a wrecking ball coming for public education that makes me wonder whether it's following the same model as public healthcare: "defund, destabilise, and privatise". Have a listen as Dr Lisa Darragh shares her learnings about maths education and how best to maximise resources and positive impact in the public school sector.
Ivor Popovich, the young ICU doctor who wrote A Dim Prognosis, gives us an insider's look at the best and worst of medicine and healthcare in NZ. He balances stories of bullying, abuse, corruption, overwork, and understaffing, with inspiring stories of seeing lives saved, deep connections with patients and whanau, and growing as a person during the approximately 14 years between starting med school and leaving as a fully-qualified specialist. Along the way, there are insights into health policy, politics, poverty, and ethnicity that make this book required reading for everyone from patients to politicians.
Did you know that the growth in New Zealanders' life expectancy, increasing since basically forever, has finally fizzled out? That our levels of untreated youth mental health problems have shown a staggering increase? And that our lack of access to GPs has perfectly mirrored our blown-out numbers of ED presentations? Economist Andrea Black and I talked about data trends and a decade of economic insights. How good did we have it, how bad are things now, are there any bright spots, and where has the money gone? And perhaps most importantly, can we fix it?
Today Elliot Crossan, author and activist with System Change Aotearoa, is talking with The Frontline about neoliberalism's original grandparents: Roger Douglas and Ruth Richardson. They destroyed our social safety net 40 years ago, and started the movement that saddled us with ACT and David Seymour, and they ain't done yet. Like our current government, they were the worst of their generation, and like this one too, they created social and economic damage that would go on to affect the average New Zealander for decades to come.
Clinical psychologist and public health expert Dave (Bear) Hookway-Kopa tells us about a problem, FASD, which currently affects more than 1 in every 65 people in New Zealand. FASD is associated with problems reasoning, considering consequences, and controlling one's emotions. FASD increases the chance of ending up in prison by 2,000%. Yet corporate-favouring governments continue to side with the alcohol corporations and against public health advice. Not surprising given that alcohol revenues are measured in billions of dollars. That kind of power and political influence doesn't sneak through the back door: it boldly walks in through the front.
Tax consultant Terry Baucher takes us through Sir Roger Douglas's recent proposal to 'save' the NZ economy. We touch on issues of wealth inequality, the retirement age, the potential collapse of superannuation, housing unaffordability, privatisation, and regressive taxes that hit the poor and spare the rich. If you think taxes are boring, think again.
Melissa Ansell-Bridges, the National Secretary of the CTU, spoke with me about the far-reaching impacts the destruction of the Pay Equity laws will cause. It's not just about the 150,000 women immediately affected. It's about the 300K people whose incomes will be impacted. And it's not just about 2025, it's about financial injuries that will literally continue on for a decade. It's cooked.
Justine Sachs is a healthcare trade unionist based in Tamaki Makaurau. Speaking about the need for Labour to be bold to save our public health system.
NZ found literally billions of tax dollars for weapons systems, property investors, and tobacco companies. But $3,000 for a colonoscopy to prevent colon cancer? Sorry, there's no money. "You're on your own." Malcolm Mulholland of Patient Voice Aotearoa takes us through the ins and outs of public bowel cancer screening in NZ. It's shittier than you might think.
Lawyer, scholar, author and social advocate Dr Max Harris talks about how those in progressive political movements can win without selling their souls.
I speak with Andrew Galloway of Alcohol Healthwatch, and Dr Rose Crossin, a public health researcher, about the changes being made to alcohol laws that will make it much harder for local communities to fight back against the multibillion-dollar alcohol industry. It's a simple matter of People vs Profits. This is NZ's David vs Goliath story, and Goliath is winning.
Dr Aniva Lawrence is a Samoan Kiwi GP and educator and advocate for rural, Maori and Pacific communities. A leader in primary healthcare, she talks about the way forward for underserved communities, and all of New Zealand healthcare, during a time of heightened challenges.
In this Frontline interview, I talked with Whangarei Mayoral candidate Ken Couper for an hour...all about local government. But don't wander off, because it was a conversation not just for Northlanders--we covered issues are of nationwide importance: poverty, co-governance, pollution, dairy farming, rising rates, the role of central government, the repeal of 3 waters, the collapse of chronically unmaintained local infrastructure, the anti-fluoride/anti-vax/anti-mandate fringe and the politicians who harvest them for publicity, showmanship vs substance in politics, the Haves vs Have-nots, unemployment, cost-of-living crisis, local apprenticeships, generational poverty, windfall profits, and education. The conversation goes beyond left and right, and it gives me hope that this dyed-in-the-wool National voter and dairy farmer is still just someone who wants the best for our region and our people. There's a message in our conversation that I believe National's upper leadership would do well to heed. The fast-tracking of greed and division is not how you build a better nation -- it's the path to a Pyrrhic victory: a quick win that does little more than tear up the social fabric that binds us together. We need to build a stronger and more humane country for the average New Zealander. Share this podcast, and follow my writing on Substack: https://substack.com/@drgarypayinda And check out: Fabricated Consent, Paul the Other One's helpful primer on what local communities are up against in this year's local council elections.
Alison McDougall is helping lead a citizen-run group called Protect Public Healthcare (PPH). They're publicising changes to the Pae Ora (Healthy Futures) Act which is travelling a little under the radar at the moment even though submissions are open and some of what the government are 'amending' in this bill could cause serious issues for many in the public health system.
Turns out it's not really true. 99.7 percent of them will stay. And the money they pay in taxes will help build our society up. A conversation on the Millionaire Migration Myth, with researcher Ed Miller of CICTAR.org.
Fleur Fitzsimons and the PSA (Public Service Administration) have served as the voice and conscience of the NZ worker in the fight against unjust government policies and at times scandalous politician rhetoric and behaviour. Today on The Frontline, we talk about both as we discuss the government's demolition of the Pay Equity Act, affecting 130,000 New Zealand working women and the families that depend on them.
Organising a resistance to the coalition can't wait until the next election. It's got to start now, locally. With strong resolve, and a fierce determination to avoid being divided-and-conquered by a government of, for, and by the rich.
Ian Powell spent 35 years in healthcare policy as head of the public (salaried) doctors' union. He's seen it all, and has some surprising thoughts about the privatisation of healthcare. Read more of Ian's work at https://otaihangasecondopinion.wordpress.com/2025/07/14/who-benefits-from-outsourcing-planned-surgery-follow-the-funding/
An interview with Dr Marcus Lee, a Northland cardiologist who, along with dozens of other doctors, penned an open letter to Simeon Brown, the Minister of Health, and other top politicians, asking them to put their money where their mouth is: To pause their private health insurance plans while they're in office, and to live with the same public healthcare system that the majority of New Zealanders, young and old, must rely on. What a great idea! I was happy to sign on. Just imagine a world where the understaffing of public hospitals and GPs and nurses actually affected those politicians making the laws and deciding where the taxpayers' money gets spent. We'd have a better public healthcare system as fast as you could say: "Wow, I guess that $2.9 billion dollars of our taxpayer money given to landlords really could have fixed all our healthcare staffing shortages nationwide and provided public dental care for every Kiwi." Skin in the Game matters! Accountability matters! Hypocrisy withers under the light of day. Sign the PUBLIC petition to demand accountability at https://chng.it/LCwBMGLhKc
Taupo's ED understaffing woes and close-down risk is making news again. A bit of good science news on the gut microbiome's effect on heart attacks. And a piece on the alcohol industry doing the right thing when forced to, by (gasp!) legal regulations: Ireland accurately labels wine as a known carcinogen. Will NZ follow?
Paul Spoonley is a Distinguished Professor Emeritus at Massey University and an expert on how nations counter violent extremism. This episode of The Frontline, Prod Spoonley tells us whether the Christchurch Massacre was a wake-up call for New Zealand, or an unheeded warning.
The Frontline talks with Odie Matson, an experienced nurse and NZ Nurse's Organisation delegate, about Simeon's latest Facebook lash-out. How can a Health Minister who just got 4 annual pay rises in a row, find himself attacking nurses on Facebook for their attempts to negotiate safer working conditions? Nurses who are offered a pay rise that is less than the cost of inflation... and who have watched their request for "safe staffing ratios" eliminated from their negotiations by a government bent on austerity for workers, while handing out tax breaks for landlords, tobacco companies, and oil corporations. Come along with us: support The Frontline movement.
Hiding 98% of your NZ profits in an offshore tax haven? Totally illegal. Unless you are a corporation like UBER, in which case it's totally legal. But should it be?Join me for a conversation with researcher Ed Miller, of CICTAR.org, on THE FRONTLINE.
NZNO Delegate and Emergency Nurse extraordinaire Rachel Thorn RN talks about retention of nursing staff, the challenges of nurse understaffing, pay offers that don't keep up with the cost of inflation, and other challenges that face the people who work days, night, weekends, and holidays to keep us alive and cared for.
The New Zealand government has announced that after 174 years, they're ending the NZ Census, to save money. The census helps decide what infrastructure and services YOUR community will get: roads, schools, police, hospitals. If it's inaccurate, your community loses stuff it needs. On The Frontline, Professor Paul Spoonley tells us whether dropping the census is likely to be a smart move forward, or a big step backward. https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/in-depth/564560/the-traditional-census-has-been-switched-off-what-happens-now Dr Gary's Substack https://substack.com/@drgarypayinda
Are nurses in Auckland being forced to work overtime, longer than they're contracted to and longer than they want to? Are those same nurses then getting underpaying and are their departments understaffed? Dawn Barrett from NZ Nurses Organisation joins Gary to talk about those issues and more. Check out Gary's writings at https://substack.com/@drgarypayinda